


Mad Angry, Mad Crazy

by bcbdrums



Category: Kim Possible (Cartoon)
Genre: Action, Angst, Angst and Drama, Angst and Feels, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Cyborgs, Death Threats, Developing Friendships, Drama, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Enemies to Friends, Episode Related, Episode Tag, Fear of Drowning, Friends to Enemies, Gen, Heavy Angst, Injury, Injury Recovery, Mad Dogs and Aliens, Major Character Injury, Massage, Misunderstandings, Psychological Drama, Psychological Trauma, Sorry Not Sorry, Suspense, Threats of Violence, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:34:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 52,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25273261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bcbdrums/pseuds/bcbdrums
Summary: Shego recoiled in shock, scooting back to the edge of the moat.  When she realized she wasn't being fired on, she looked up past the gun to its owner.  Drakken had both hands on the weapon and was pointing it calmly at her chest, his face void of expression.Her breaths, which had been quick and shallow, began to slow as realization struck."You're... You're really...going to kill me.  Aren't you, Dr. D."He didn't even flinch.
Relationships: Dr. Drakken & Shego (Kim Possible)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 15





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: NOTES ARE IMPORTANT. Read them. Okay. I have lots to say about this.
> 
> This is my version of a post-Mad Dogs and Aliens story. I already did a mini-version in the fic titled _Check out my prison tats, Yo!_ which I am immensely proud of. But I wanted more, SO... This fic is a _continuation_ of the aforementioned prison tats fic. I actually copy-pasted that fic into here where it fits in the timeline, with the spoiler part deleted as it's relevant to the plot of the larger story.
> 
> This fic will be thirteen chapters in total. Updates will be frequent. Fic title taken from the first episode of Kim Possible.
> 
> And now... Enjoy...the angst... Muahaha~!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Shego! Get out! Shego!” he shouted over the roar of the flames, which he noticed were growing larger.
> 
> Her eyes opened ever so slightly, focusing on him briefly before falling closed again.
> 
> A voice was approaching from behind and he nearly dropped the beam in his panic. He glanced back and saw two firemen running toward him. He needed to think quickly.
> 
> “She…she’s trapped. It’s too heavy, I can’t hold it anymore!” he cried.
> 
> The two firemen immediately stepped in and took the weight of the beam from him. His heart pounded against his rib cage as he grabbed Shego under her arms and pulled her out from under the beam and off of the broken concrete. 
> 
> _'Please wake up, please wake up…’_
> 
> His side-kick’s eyes remained closed.

**Mad Angry, Mad Crazy**

**Prologue**

Drakken stumbled through the rain and back down the staircase into the corporate Bueno Nacho headquarters-turned-lair. He pushed his wet hair out of his eyes as he skidded to a stop in front of one of the robot control panels, gasping in surprise. One of the consoles was on fire, while the rest sparked from the destruction Kim Possible had caused.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going!" Stoppable's voice sounded from the top of the stairs.

Drakken ran past the flaming console and slammed his fist onto a large red button, whirling around the moment he saw on the computer screen that it still worked.

"Hey!" Stoppable shouted again, but Drakken shoved him aside as he dashed up the stairs again.

"Quick, Shego! Back to the lair!" he cried as he rushed toward the hover-car, now sitting atop the sombrero facade of the rooftop that he had turned into a launch bay.

He leapt into the passenger seat and dug his fingers into the arm rest.

"Months and months of planning, gone! Just like that! All because of one all-that teenage brat! Shego? Why aren't we going? She—"

He gasped as he finally turned to the driver's seat of the hover-car and saw it empty. And beyond, Kim Possible and Stoppable were running toward him.

"Shego!?" he cried in panic, looking all around the rooftop. But he didn't see his side-kick anywhere. "Nnh..."

He slid over into the driver's seat and launched the craft straight up, just as the teens finished scaling the sombrero. He heard the release of pressurized air as Kim Possible fired her hair dryer grappler-thing toward him, and he increased the speed of the hover-car until he felt he was far out of range.

He slowed the vehicle to a stop and peered over the side, squinting at the scene below. The two teens looked like mere ants on the roof as they stared up at him. He looked beyond and saw the blue and red flash of approaching police sirens on the highway. But look as he did, he couldn't see Shego.

He swallowed nervously as the police vehicles poured into the Bueno Nacho parking lot, and he could distantly hear their sirens above the wail of the wind and rain. A sudden flash of lightning nearly sent him out of the craft as he jumped in terror, and he sat down and put the vehicle in gear and turned it back toward his favorite lair.

But...where was Shego?

She would be fine. She always was. And it wasn't as if she ever waited around to save _his_ behind when the going got tough.

But... _where was she?_

With a grimace he stopped the craft and leaned over the side again, looking back at the rooftop.

Possible and Stoppable had abandoned staring at him and were now staring at...the burning wreckage of his control tower.

His breath caught so suddenly he nearly choked as he remembered. He had been cowering under Stoppable's juvenile gloating when he heard Shego scream, and then he heard the tower collapse. Stoppable had turned, and that's when he'd taken the opportunity to run back into the building.

His heart was racing as he realized what had happened. Somehow, Shego was in that wreck. And the flames were rising higher and higher.

He put the hover-car in gear again and piloted it back down as fast as he could until he reached the ground. He set the craft down on the opposite side of the wreckage from where the police cars were parked and grabbed his ray gun out of the glove compartment. He never used it since he had Shego, but this might be a necessary exception.

"Shego!" he called, rushing toward the smoke and rubble. He listened for a reply, but all he could hear was the roar of flames and the pops of transformers exploding. A sudden blast from a fire engine's horn caused him to stumble, and he ran closer.

"Shego!" He lifted his arm to shield his eyes from the smoke and rain as he stepped into the part of the rubble that wasn't on fire and scanned the ground. "Shego!"

All he could see were twisted and charred pieces of metal, sparking wires, and broken concrete. More sirens were approaching and he could hear voices calling orders insistently. He was beginning to despair when the flickering of orange flame suddenly illuminated a small patch of green behind a piece of metal.

"Shego!" he called more softly, hoping to not alert the police as he rushed forward. She lay on her back atop a jagged piece of broken concrete with a large metal beam across her body. Her eyes were closed and half of her face was streaked red with blood. "Shego!"

She didn't make any gesture or sound of response, and he began tugging at the beam that was pinning her down.

A shout of alarm behind him let him know he'd been spotted. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the silhouettes of two firemen pulling a hose off of an engine, and a third pointing at him. He pulled frantically at the beam until he had it elevated a few inches.

"Shego! Get out! Shego!" he shouted over the roar of the flames, which he noticed were growing larger.

Her eyes opened ever so slightly, focusing on him briefly before falling closed again.

A voice was approaching from behind and he nearly dropped the beam in his panic. He glanced back and saw two firemen running toward him. He needed to think quickly.

"She...she's trapped. It's too heavy, I can't hold it anymore!" he cried.

The two firemen immediately stepped in and took the weight of the beam from him. His heart pounded against his rib cage as he grabbed Shego under her arms and pulled her out from under the beam and off of the broken concrete. 

_'Please wake up, please wake up...'_

His side-kick's eyes remained closed, and he bit his lip. He had only planned this far.

"You're Dr. Drakken!" one of the firemen said as they dropped the beam.

"Nyeh..." He pulled the ray gun from his pocket and shot both men point-blank. They fell to the ground with grunts of pain. "Nice to meet you." Drakken dropped the weapon as he scooped Shego up into his arms and began sprinting toward the hover-car.

"Hey!" a familiar, younger female voice called out. He didn't give Kim Possible a passing glance as he jumped over metal beams and skidded over broken concrete on his path to escape.

More voices joined the teen hero's as he climbed into the hover-car and quickly put it in gear. He sped up and away at the craft's full speed, the rain beating like needles against his face, only glancing back when he had cleared the top of the building that had temporarily been the start of his worldwide empire.

Kim Possible was on the ground pointing up at him, and he could see a police officer speaking into a radio next to her. He swallowed nervously. That probably wouldn't bode well for him.

After programming the GPS with the lair's coordinates, he set the craft on auto-pilot. Shego lay across his lap, as he hadn't wasted time in the escape to get her safely in the passenger seat. He looked down at her face and found her eyes still closed, and her bloodied cheek lay against the lapel of his expensive blue suit.

"Shego?"

She didn't respond. Tendrils of worry began to wind their way into his chest as he carefully pressed two fingers against her neck. Her heartbeat was steady and strong, but whatever injuries she had incurred that were keeping her unconscious would probably warrant more care than a few days of rest in the Caribbean.

He was wondering where on Earth he could take her that would be safe, when the powerful sound of beating helicopter blades arrested his attention.

He looked back over his shoulder to see a police chopper closing in on him, and with a gasp he took the hover-car off of autopilot and increased the speed.

 _"Set your vehicle down!"_ an order from a loudspeaker sounded.

Drakken grit his teeth and steered the hover-car down toward the city. The helicopter could only follow him so low. He could lose it flying through the skyscrapers.

"Ungh..." 

The soft groan below his chin startled him and he looked down at the face of his side-kick. Her eyes were still closed, and she was still a dead-weight across his lap. He noticed for the first time the rips in her suit and the blood staining her arms, legs, and midsection. He realized her hair looked very odd too, as if she had been exposed to too much static electricity.

 _'Or just electricity...'_ he thought, realizing that she must have been victim to more than just the collapse of the tower.

"Kim Possible..." he said with a growl.

 _"Dr. Drakken. Set your vehicle down!"_ the police order sounded again.

The roads and bright city lights below him made navigation easy, and he brought the hover-car so low as to nearly touch the tops of the street lamps. The pursuing helicopter was forced away, and he grinned in satisfaction as he pushed his wet hair out of his face. The feeling was momentary though, as suddenly a spotlight shone on him from above.

He peered up at the pursuing helicopter with a grimace and increased his speed again, turning sharply at the next intersection. The spotlight vanished.

"Ha! All is not lost, Shego," he said with a small grin. He looked down and saw her eyes open to unfocused slits, looking straight ahead at nothing. "Shego?"

Suddenly the spotlight returned, and he took another sharp turn to evade it. Unfortunately this took him out of the city and over farm land. He piloted the craft even lower along the tree line, hoping to stay out of sight. At least out there he didn't have the city lights giving him away. He turned off his headlights, too.

"Shego? Are you all right?" he asked, focusing again on his side-kick. 

She finally, with painful slowness turned her face up toward his. Her lips parted as if she was going to speak, but then her eyes rolled back in her head.

"Shego!?" he cried.

_"Dr. Drakken!"_

The loudspeaker and the beating of the helicopter blades was suddenly right in front of him, joined a moment later by the spotlight. He threw up his hands against the blinding light and the driving rain, but it proved to be a grave mistake. Without his steering, the craft veered left and skimmed against the side of a tree.

He gasped and jerked the wheel hard away from the scrape of branches against metal, but that only led him directly into another tree.

"No!" he cried as he lost all control of the craft. He hunkered down, shielding Shego with his body as the craft crashed into branch after branch. He felt each impact painfully, but thankfully he'd had the presence of mind to wear his seat belt so he had only to hold tight to Shego and protect her as the branches whipped against his body and head.

The hover-car stopped with a painful abruptness, which Drakken saw had been caused by a tree trunk when he finally dared to open his eyes. Smoke rose from every crack in the craft, and he yanked his seat belt off and pulled Shego out of the ruined vehicle before it could explode. Overhead, he could still hear the menacing beat of the helicopter's blades.

"Shego?" He gazed down into her face. He had laid her on the ground several feet away from the hover-car. Despite the darkness, the bloodstains on her costume still stood out against the green. He wondered how many were hidden in the black. "Shego!"

Her eyes opened halfway again, focusing on him.

"Get up! We have to run!"

She looked confused and she pursed her lips, but then her face twisted in pain.

"Shego?"

The sound of approaching sirens led Drakken to whirl around in panic. He had no idea where they were, except they were surrounded by trees and had been flying away from the city.

"Shego!"

She didn't respond, apparently having fallen unconscious again.

"Nghh...raghh!" he cried in frustration as he picked her up again, his low back protesting painfully at the effort. "I hope you appreciate this!"

He ran deeper into the trees and away from the sirens. And he ran, and ran, and ran, and ran...

First his arms burned from the weight he carried, joined soon by his back. Then his legs burned from the running. Then his knees, from the _prolonged_ running. And then his feet. He eventually realized he couldn't feel his toes, and that his lips were raw from the cold of the rain which still hadn't stopped.

After the sirens had come the bark of dogs, and occasional shouts, but still he ran.

The surrounding trees and heavy drops of rain became a blur as much as the passing of time as his only goals became to avoid obstacles, to keep moving away from the threat of arrest and imprisonment, and above all to keep Shego safe.

It was when the only sounds he heard were his own steps and his labored breaths that he would dare to call her name. Each time he was rewarded with a slightly longer look—unfocused though they were—from his injured side-kick. Once she almost managed a word.

Finally, he couldn't run anymore.

He set Shego down against the foot of a tree, propping her carefully upright. He staggered a few steps away before descending ungracefully to his knees and laying face-down in the dampened dirt. The rain had finally stopped. He took several breaths of the earth-scented air before rolling onto his back and turning his head toward his side-kick, brushing his hair out of his face again. The wet dirt was uncomfortable against his cheek, but he didn't care. It was the least painful part of him, since even breathing hurt.

As he tried to get air into his lungs he realized it wasn't quite as dark as it used to be. He turned his head to the East and saw a slight lessening of the black sky at the horizon. He had been running that long?

That was his last thought before passing out.

* * *

When Drakken opened his eyes again, he thought that only a moment had passed. However the sky had a more violet hue so it had been several minutes at least. He rolled onto his side toward Shego and discovered that everything still hurt.

"Shego..." he croaked, pushing himself upright. He looked down at his expensive suit, ruined by wet dirt and dried blood. Then he crept toward her. "Shego?"

Her head turned slightly toward the sound of his voice, and her eyes opened the way they had all night—unfocused and only halfway.

"Shego, we have to keep moving," he insisted. "Please...get up."

Shockingly, her eyes didn't fall closed this time, but she blinked again and turned more toward him.

"What..." she said hoarsely, before her face twisted in pain.

"They're after us. We have to move!" he said, struggling to his feet. Every joint and muscle protested the action, but he made it with an extreme effort. He took a stumbling step toward her and stretched out his hand.

"Please get up. I'll give you a raise!"

She peered at him through the darkness of the early dawn. "What's... Tower..." she muttered in confusion.

"I know," he said, taking another step toward her and this time grabbing her wrist and tugging on her arm.

"Owww!" she cried, sounding like herself for the first time, her eyes widening and her hands flaring green.

"G-good, you're okay. Now get up!" he said, his tone changing from one of desperation to authority.

"I'm not..." she began, but her voice trailed off and her eyes slowly fell closed again.

"No, Shego!" he said, raising his voice. He reached around her and pulled her upright next to him.

Suddenly, the sound of barking dogs in the distance reached his ears and he gasped in panic.

"Run!" he hissed, but she was unresponsive. He noticed that blood was still flowing from a cut on her forehead. The realization that she must have a bad concussion suddenly hit him, and he forgot his own pain for a moment as worry struck him anew. "Shego?"

The barking was getting closer, and he picked her up in the now-familiar bridal carry and began running again. But he only made it a few steps before his body refused to cooperate and he fell to his knees, losing his grip on Shego in the process. She fell the few feet to the ground and landed hard on her side.

The impact caused her eyes to shoot open and dart around until they focused up on his, glaring in anger.

"What's going— Nnghh!" she groaned, gripping her head in pain.

"Run!" Drakken cried as the barking got even closer.

He watched as something clearly clicked in Shego's unfocused eyes, and she rolled over with a grimace of pain and forced herself to her feet, every movement taking her farther away from the sound. He was immediately at her heels and grabbed her arm to help keep her upright as they hastened to escape, but she stumbled with every other step and he had abused his body so much during the night that he was barely keeping up with her.

In less than a minute, four dogs emerged from the trees behind them running at full speed with tails wagging deceptively.

Chest heaving, Shego whirled around and took a defensive stance, her hands flaring in luminescent green. The dogs halted their approach but continued to bark, no doubt alerting their human pursuers to their position. Drakken cowered behind Shego and thought desperately for any way out.

"Get them," he finally said, feeling as though he would collapse again at any moment. And if he did, he would be totally defenseless.

Shego obediently shot her glow at the closest dog, but the blast missed it and hit a tree behind.

"Don't play nice!" Drakken complained.

Shego shot again, and again the blast missed, this time hitting the dirt about a foot to the dog's right.

"I'm not—" she gasped out as she fell to one knee.

Drakken knelt at her side and watched her eyes fall closed again and then blink back to scant awareness. He swallowed nervously.

"Dr. Drakken!" an authoritative voice sounded behind him, and he whirled around to see a crowd of police officers emerging from the darkness of the trees. "You won't get any farther. Surrender!"

Drakken recoiled from the threat of arrest, but the groan of his side-kick next to him caused him to turn. He watched her painfully rise up to her feet again, her hands glowing even more intensely as she glared at their opponents in challenge, her eyes falling closed between each breath.

He stared at her, blood crusted under her nose and on her leg, her chest heaving and legs trembling with the effort of staying conscious and on her feet. He grit his teeth in fury as he realized that after all of his efforts, they had reached the end of the line. Because even if he made it out...she couldn't.

"Shego," he sighed. She glanced toward him. "Kim Possible wins this round...again."

"What!?" she snarled. Her eyes suddenly rolled back in her head, the outburst too much for whatever else her body was battling. Her glow went out and she fell forward into his arms. The police officers rushed forward, and her eyes fluttered open again as she found her feet. "What?"

Drakken didn't get a chance to say anything else as the pair of them were cuffed behind their backs and held roughly by officers on either side. Drakken grew angrier and angrier as they were led out of the forest back the way he had come as the sun crept over the horizon.


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> __
> 
> _"Dr. D., you have some schmutz on your face. Right here," she said, pointing at the corner of her own eye._
> 
> _"Where?" he said, rubbing all over the side of his face. The smudge remained._
> 
> _"Here, let me," she said, licking her gloved thumb and reaching up to rub at the spot. He tried to back away but she held him firmly in place with her other hand on his shoulder._
> 
> _"Ow!" he said as she scrubbed at the spot. It stayed firmly in place._
> 
> _"Stubborn little..." she said, leaning closer. And then her eyes widened and she froze.  
> _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _A/N: Okay. First of all._
> 
> _THANK YOU FOR ALL THE REVIEWS!!! And I'm so sorry to disappoint many of you... We're not headed to prison. (That deserves its own fic...hee!) We are instead jumping ahead to Mad Dogs and Aliens._
> 
> _Most of this chapter's content is the stand-alone fic **'Check Out My Prison Tats, Yo!'** but if you've read it, fear not, part of it has been cut and new content has been added. If you haven't read that fic, don't, as it contains a spoiler which has been cut from this one. Every chapter henceforth will be entirely new content, if any of you are concerned._
> 
> _The stage has been set... On with the show!_

**Chapter One**

_Several months later..._

Shego adjusted the fit of her suit in the mirror and then reached into her duffel bag for her hair brush. She supposed it _was_ time to change after three lairs had turned up empty—she wasn't dropping in casually, like she'd told herself she was. Now she was full-on searching for Drakken.

After another week at the spa and absolutely nothing worthwhile in the classifieds, she supposed it wouldn't hurt to see if he had anything new planned. He was usually off-and-running again with new schemes in less than week after a failure, and the alien amazon had hit the road seven days ago. That was plenty of time for him to soothe his ego, right?

But with two underwater lairs and the arctic lair turning up empty, now she was beginning to wonder. He hadn't been arrested again...so just where was he?

After fixing her hair, she slipped her gloves on and zipped the duffel bag up tightly. She glanced around carefully, watching for traps yet again as she exited the bathroom of the time-share lair. A suspicious-looking Professor Dementor stood with arms crossed next to the front door.

At least he had let her change in the bathroom. Now that she had gone through existing lairs, it was time for the destroyed ones. And if those turned up empty too...

"Are you _sure_ you haven't seen him?" she asked, pausing on her way out the door.

Dementor smirked in a way that made her want to retreat, but she didn't give him the satisfaction. "We all thought you were finally done with him."

Shego's only reply was to turn and leave. Her contract with Drakken was none of Dementor's or anyone else's business. So she had decided to take an extended vacation after her last prison break, so what? He'd gotten out eventually, thanks to that alien giantess. He was fine.

Wasn't he?

The closest lair was the one in the Caribbean, though after it had been decimated by that alien's interference she was sure it was gone for good. But since she was running out of places to look, she supposed it deserved a shot.

* * *

She had to steal a boat to get there. Any hover-cars were no doubt impounded by the government, or worse—by Global Justice. Those vehicles had been one major advantage of being in Drakken's employ. Having to rely on standard transportation, even when she didn't pay for it, was far less efficient.

As she approached the island she was surprised to look up and see construction scaffolding surrounding all of the destruction at the top.

He must be there after all.

She used one of the intact secret entrances on the beach and then the stairs to ascend the mountain, up to the point where the destruction made standard passage impossible. She picked her way through the ruins of several floors of the lair until reaching the top.

The red-clad henchmen were everywhere. Some leaned over blueprints and argued about framing, some were in the act of rebuilding the the outer walls, and others were clearing out the rubble. And in the midst of all the red, there was one person in blue.

The henchmen gave her a wide berth as she made her way towards Drakken, but he didn't notice her approach. He was hunched over farther than usual, looking around in the mess on the floor apparently for something specific, and his expression was dark and brooding.

"I thought you'd have finally kissed this one goodbye, Doc?" she greeted.

He jumped, startled by her voice. As soon as he laid eyes on her his expression became so vile that she nearly recoiled. But then his face twisted in pain and he reached behind him to dig the knuckles of one hand into his neck.

"This lair is nostalgic. But yes, I'll need to move out for awhile until the construction is completed. The noise will be too distracting..." he said, resuming his search among the debris on the floor. "Ah!"

He reached down with one hand, using the other to brace himself against a chair that had tipped over, and then lifted up a dirty teddy bear. He slowly straightened and then embraced the bear.

Shego wanted to roll her eyes, but found herself transfixed. Something was different about him.

_'Definitely different,'_ she thought, as he walked with a noticeable limp toward a large crate in the center of the room that had been cleared. One hand alternated between pressing into his mid-back and his neck as he slowly moved toward it, and finally he dropped the stuffed animal inside.

His relief as he leaned against the crate was obvious. Far too obvious, for someone with as much pride as Drakken.

"You, uh...you all right, Dr. D.?" she asked, following him over.

"Do I look all right!?" he snapped, turning toward her with ferocity.

This time she did recoil at the same time as he gasped in pain and reached both hands behind his neck and closed his eyes tightly, searching for relief.

"What...happened?" Shego asked carefully, against her better judgment.

Drakken's eyes opened, but then narrowed on hers. "I suppose you _would_ forget that I was thrown a mile high by an alien and then left for dead. Just like you forgot to break me out of prison..." The last was said in a mumble, but not nearly soft enough that she couldn't hear him.

Shego wanted to comment about his defeat by Kim Possible with the Li'l Diablos. In fact she had several comments about that, most of them related to the tower collapsing on her after she'd been electrocuted. But for some reason his words 'left for dead' hit her hard.

After the alien took off she _had_ just left. She hadn't bothered to see what had happened to him after the alien had thrown him through the roof. Clearly he hadn't had a soft landing. Of course, she'd been nursing several bruises of her own after the encounter.

But she was a super-human. Drakken was not.

He had gone back to limping around the lair and picking through the mess on the floor. He looked angrier than she had ever seen him. But if he was in as much pain as he acted, perhaps it was justified.

"Well...I'm here now," she said, approaching him. He looked at her sharply again, his face a mixture of distrust, anger, and...hope? She sighed. "What exactly are you looking for?"

He turned his gaze back to the floor. "My personal belongings, and anything that can be salvaged for future use. Small things go in that crate, big things in that one," he said, pointing. He rubbed his neck again after doing so, craning it backwards with a grimace of pain. "Why are you here, anyway?"

She ignored the question as she reached him, fascinated by his apparent injuries and his iron-will in the face of them. And then she noticed something else.

"Dr. D., you have some _schmutz_ on your face. Right here," she said, pointing at the corner of her own eye.

"Where?" he said, rubbing all over the side of his face. The smudge remained.

"Here, let me," she said, licking her gloved thumb and reaching up to rub at the spot. He tried to back away but she held him still with her other hand on his shoulder.

"Ow!" he said as she scrubbed at the spot. It stayed firmly in place.

"Stubborn little..." she said, leaning closer. And then her eyes widened and she froze.

It wasn't dirt on his face, but two tiny tattoos in the shape of tear drops. One was all black, and the other was a mere outline.

She stood as if suspended in time, one hand still holding his shoulder and the other hovering just above his jaw line as she stared at him.

"What is it?" he asked.

She tried to swallow the lump in her throat, but found it wouldn't move. "The...tattoos," she said, her voice coming out far more calmly than she expected.

"Oh, those. Tell me, do they balance out the scar? The henchmen told me yes, but I'm not convinced."

She barely heard him, her heart racing now and the blood thudding heavily in her ears. She knew what tear drop tattoos meant. She'd spent enough time in various prisons to learn all about them, and about all of the gang symbols and other markings that told an inmate's story.

But in her opinion, tear drop tattoos were the worst of all.

"I regret all of them. Big John—that was his name—"

Shego shuddered and stepped back, clutching her hands together against her chest.

"He said each tattoo would hurt less, but they didn't. So now I have five stupid inks. Isn't that what they call them, 'inks'? But..." he sighed, "I only have myself to blame for four of them. I chose them, after all. Wanted to be hip to the prison crowd since I was going to be in there a long time."

Shego missed his dig against her, still in shock. Frightening memories of the time someone had tried to claim her with a tear drop of their own came back to her. Of course, she had her powers to defend herself. But what did Drakken have? And—she swallowed again and found her mouth dry as she realized—he was in a male-only ward...

She shook her head in revulsion at the images that struck her imagination, of him trying and failing to protect himself, of being forced into who knew how many acts against his will, undoubtedly violent, his very humanity violated. And the final humiliation, being branded so everyone would know.

Drakken was looking at her in confusion, and she realized what her face must look like. She blinked several times and tried to come back to herself. But the horror was so fresh that she found she couldn't. And Drakken... How could he be so nonchalant?

He finally gave up due to her silence and resumed his clean-up. Shego's eyes remained fixed on the two tiny tear drops. No way a big softy like him wasn't affected by it. But maybe he was trying to block it out. It definitely wouldn't help to have her bringing up the memories.

She started picking among the debris herself, noticing now that some of her own belongings were in the mix. But she couldn't bring herself to care about them.

She felt guilty.

She had only been incarcerated for a few months before she had been broken out by Motor Ed. Would it have really killed her to get him out too? She didn't have to go back to work for him afterward.

Of course, by three months it was probably...too late. So it wasn't her fault.

Drakken leaned on a crate and paused to rub his neck again, his expression suggesting he was in agony.

But leaving him for dead after that alien's attack certainly was her fault. The ache in her chest grew to include her stomach, and she suddenly felt compelled to apologize to him.

She pulled out her cell phone instead.

"If your neck hurts that much, you should get a massage. I'll hook you up with the best therapist I know," she said, paging through her contacts.

Drakken looked over at her. There was slightly less suspicion in his eyes.

"Who?"

"Midas. He's at the Mount Olympus spa, where I—" she stopped short, realizing that mentioning her 'vacation' was probably not the best idea.

"Wait, that place in Greece? I don't have time for that! I have to get to Tahiti!"

Shego blinked at the non sequitur, but let it pass with the way he was holding his neck again with both hands and had his jaw set.

"Well...then let me," she said, approaching him again.

"What?" he said, looking almost like his old self for the first time. Him being afraid of her felt normal enough that it made the ache in her chest lessen ever so slightly.

"Yeah. What happened to the couch?" stepping behind him and setting her hands on his shoulders.

"It's...um...over there," he pointed to another pile of rubble.

"Let's go," she said, gently pushing him. They reached the place in the far corner of what had been the lab and she began throwing debris off of the couch. "Take your coat off."

"What?" he said nervously, looking even more like himself.

"Yeah, so I can actually get to the sore spots."

He hesitated, and then undid the fastenings of his blue lab coat and took it off, draping it over the back of the sofa.

"Doc. Seriously?" she asked, looking over his attire. Beneath the coat were blue suit pants and a white dress shirt, buttoned up to the collar.

"It fits the mad scientist motif," he argued.

"No, it doesn't," she said, positioning some pillows she'd picked up from the floor. "Take the shirt off too and then lay down."

"Sh-shirt...?"

"Yeah... Got a hearing problem?"

She settled for the tame insult as opposed to the one that wanted to come out naturally—asking if his injuries from the alien encounter included hearing loss. But he was in so much pain—a week later, she realized—and she still felt guilty about leaving him both after that and now leaving him in prison. The harsher insults could wait for later.

He lay the shirt over the back of the couch, now sporting a white tank top that was tucked into his suit pants.

"Okay, lay on your front now," she said.

He complied and she realized that he must have had massages before, the way he placed his hands and his head. She also noticed that he must have spent some time in prison working out, considering how lean his frame was and how toned his arms had become.

Then she noticed the spiderweb tattoo circling one of his elbows.

She began massaging his shoulders.

The sharp gasp that instantly escaped his lips at her touch made her wonder if he shouldn't be on his way to a doctor instead of Tahiti—whatever that was about—but it would probably end in recapture and more work for her. So, massage it would be.

"Nice spiderweb."

"Thanks. I hate it," he said, his voice muffled by the upholstery.

"I dunno Doc, it makes you look kind of tough. Although the heart doesn't," she said, noticing the red symbol on his bicep on the other arm. It had an arrow going through it, and the word 'Mother.'

"That was the last one I got," he said, shifting so he could speak more easily. "Big John said it was a good start to a sleeve."

Shego felt the lump return to her throat at the mention of Big John, and she looked at the tear drops again. Was he the one who had...?

"What was the first?" she asked quietly.

He shifted again. "Pull my shirt down," he said.

She blinked, wondering if he had really just said that. But she pulled the back of the tank top down until she saw the curved line of text just beneath it.

" _'Only God can judge me?'_ Really, Dr. D.?"

"I was drunk off of their illegal hooch, okay? Never tasted such high alcohol content before..." he muttered.

She resumed the massage, working up to his neck now. Another sharp gasp escaped his lips and she looked at his face in concern, wondering if she was making the pain worse. Her eyes widened as she saw real tears streaking down his cheeks next to the tattoos.

She turned her thumbs in smooth, firm circles over his tight muscles as she watched his face. The ache in her chest returned full force as she understood his vulnerability. For all of the things Drakken was and all the things he wasn't, he still kept a wall up just like she did. His just looked different than most people's, with his 'cocoa-moo' and _Snowman Hank_ marathons. But a wall was still a wall.

"Thank you Shego," he said, his voice hoarse.

But he was in pain. His wall was cracked. And she found herself wanting to let hers down just a bit too, if only to meet him halfway. He was forgiving her after all...wasn't he?

"You said you got five tattoos. Do the...tear drops count as one, or two?"

"One," he answered, opening his eyes so he could meet her gaze. She had shifted to the side to allow him to do so. His expression was uncharacteristically sober. "You...know what they mean?"

She nodded slowly. "Yes. Well, sort of," she said, trying to cover the discomfort she suddenly felt. "Why is one just an outline?"

"An outline just means attempted murder," he said, closing his eyes again.

Shego blinked. _'What?'_

"And I've been thinking Shego..." he continued, "maybe we should do a little less wanton destruction. People _do_ get hurt. And that won't exactly endear me to them as their future ruler."

Shego was still reeling from the revelation. _'Attempted murder?'_ Then the other tear drop that was filled in...

"And this reminder in the mirror, every day...that I've killed..." he said, his voice growing sober again. "They're not...really my enemy. I could end up killing someone like me, with such carelessness. The public are all...individuals."

Shego was hanging on every word, making sure she understood his meaning. She looked at the tear drop tattoos again, her eyes wide. The outline meant attempted murder, and the solid black drop just meant...murder.

Relief flooded her until every nerve was tingling and cool, all the way to her toes.

"So you weren't—" she blurted out, but then clamped down on her words.

He opened an eye to peer at her. "I...weren't what?"

She took a few breaths to calm down, and found the corners of her lips threatening to turn upwards into a smile. Apparently prison tattoos had multiple meanings.

"Nothing," she said, continuing to ease his tense muscles. "Um...yeah, we can talk about boundaries for violence," she said, trying to put him off of her near-slip.

There was no way she would ever tell him that she'd thought he'd been raped.

He was still eyeing her, his expression growing suspicious again.

"Um. You said you had five tattoos. What's the fifth?" she asked with a bit too much interest.

Suddenly he began pushing himself off the couch. "The one I regret the most!" he said, his anger back like a whirlwind.

"Hey! Dr. D., stop. You're in pain."

He proved her point by reaching up to his neck again and clenching his teeth.

"Come on, I want to help. You can tell me about your next plan. What's in Tahiti, anyway?"

His anger was back in full force, and he stood up painfully from the couch and gathered up his shirt and lab coat.

"You? Help? I'd laugh if it wouldn't hurt so much," he said, turning and limping toward his room.

Shego watched him go, the dull ache returning to her chest. If he hadn't been...violated the way she'd thought, why was he still so mad?

Maybe they did need to have a talk about boundaries for violence.

With nothing else to do, Shego searched for her belongings among the rubble. There was very little, and she dropped everything she found on the couch. But there was also so much wreckage that it made it hard to search and she gave up after a scarce five minutes.

She looked up at the henchmen who were trying to clear out the mess and after a few seconds she shrugged. As long as she was there... She crossed the room to a supply closet she never opened and found what she was looking for, and then went to join the henchmen.

She began sweeping the floor with a rarely-used broom, moving debris around as she wondered what had suddenly made Drakken so mad. The henchmen around her continued sorting through what could be salvaged and what would have to be thrown out, but they all gave her an unusually-wide berth, even for them.

She glanced at them with a perturbed frown every few minutes, and whenever she caught the eye of one or another, they would immediately look away in fear. At least that hadn't changed.

As she swept things into one great pile of dust, chunks of rock, and metal scraps, she left behind her thoughts about Drakken's tattoos and wondered instead about the pain he was in. So he had been hurt when the alien threw him through the roof... She felt bad. Really bad. But he was alive and well enough to be uncharacteristically angry. So it couldn't be that severe...right?

But the absolute venom he was treating her with was definitely questionable. He hadn't even acted that mad when she started attacking his new alien side-kick; more just his usual whining and simpering. So what had prompted his sudden hostility now?

She sighed and leaned the broom against the sofa and turned to approach the henchmen. Maybe they had answers.

When the red-clad men realized she was making to talk to them, they all retreated as if she was an approaching storm surge. She stopped short a good fifteen feet from them and set a hand on her hip.

"So...I take it I missed something. What?"

They turned and looked at each other. It was like a schoolyard case of 'I know something you don't know,' but without the teasing and humor.

"Um. Not much," Jameson—the oft-elected spokesperson—answered after a few moments.

"Uh-huh..." she said. "And what's really going on?"

They looked at each other again. And then her brow shot up as they turned their backs to her and resumed their cleaning. With a growl her hands began glowing in fists at her sides. She'd show them to treat her with such disrespect.

She lifted her hands...and then let her glow go out. This wasn't about them. It was about Drakken.

She turned on her heel and picked her way through the debris until she reached his door, and knocked soundly. There was no reply. When she entered his code, the door only moved an inch, so she grabbed it and pulled it back until she had a broad entry way.


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He rose from the bed, somehow continuing to look menacing even as one hand rubbed his neck. He postured in front of her and with his other hand pointed toward his door. "Go. Away. Shego. Don't come back."
> 
> "What?" she asked, halting her retreat. She lifted her hands in a position of surrender. Everything was happening too fast, and none of it was making sense.
> 
> "Don't come back! You're fired!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Chapter 2... Things begin to get interesting.
> 
> This picks up directly from the end of the last scene.

**Chapter 2**

The room was a shambles, debris covering the floor and filling the moat, with dust and rubble all over the once-majestic bed. But no Drakken.

Her eyes missed his discarded clothing entirely as she turned toward his bathroom door and pulled it ajar with barely a second thought. 

A strangled shout from within drew her eyes to where Drakken sat upright in his bathtub, his eyes wide with shock that immediately turned to anger when he saw her poking her head in.

"What are you doing!? Get out!" he shouted, his arms covering his chest protectively.

"We need to talk," she said with a frown.

"You! You...! _F-fine!_ But only if you get out!"

Her frown was set like stone, but his fury caused her to internally recoil. He was...really, really mad. At her. What had she done?

She wordlessly pulled her face back out of the bathroom door and closed it, leaning back against it with a shallow sigh. Then she noticed his lab coat and suit dropped on the floor next to his mirror and vanity. She rolled her eyes and headed back to the living area. The last thing she needed was to make him more mad by being there when he came out in a towel.

Back in the living area, she resumed sweeping the floor, casting curious glances at the henchmen every few minutes. She started sweeping a path toward them. Perhaps if she could talk to just one, she might get some information.

"So Henderson..." she said.

The man she had sneaked up on jumped a foot into the air.

"What happened after I left last week? Were we able to keep hold of any of that alien technology?"

She watched the man's eyes widen behind his standard-issue black glasses. "You...actually care?"

She blinked in surprise. "Uh, yeah. That stuff was pretty powerful."

The henchman turned and went back to his work. "Maybe you should ask Dr. Drakken..." he mumbled.

Shego was still surprised by the man's reaction to her. Of course she cared about things that had potential for evil. Why wouldn't she? But he acted as if...it was the last thing she would care about.

At that moment her cell phone rang. She bent to get it out of the pouch on her calf, and looking at the screen saw it was Drakken.

 _"Okay, let's talk,"_ was all he said when she answered.

"Why did you call? Why didn't you just come out here?"

A dial-tone was his answer. She grimaced and replaced the slim phone in her pouch, and then shoved the broom into Henderson's hands before stalking toward the hall. So Drakken was being even more petulant than usual...fine. She could deal with it for a bit.

When she stepped back through his door, she found him laying on his back on a clean patch of the bedspread. He was wearing a black t-shirt and loose-fitting gray sweat pants. His hair was free of its ponytail and damp, surrounding his head on the blanket like an black, thorny crown. Making the picture even more atypical were his two arm tattoos of the spider web and red heart, and the telltale teardrops under his eye.

He glanced toward her. The cold calculation in his eyes was unsettling. In his casual attire and with the tattoos, he looked almost capable of the evil that was in his dark stare. After a moment she turned back to pull the door closed. For some reason she felt like this would be a conversation that shouldn't be interrupted.

"Shego... Why are you here?"

She looked down at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what I mean," he said, his anger barely concealed. A sharp gasp escaped his lips as his eyes closed tightly in pain. He writhed on the bed and Shego watched in silence. An unfamiliar weight was forming in the pit of her stomach that displaced all of the questions she had about the henchmen's behavior and prompted her to speak.

"Dr. D.... Don't you think you ought to go to the hospital?"

He didn't turn to face her, but glared from the position he was currently twisted into. "And get arrested again and go to prison indefinitely? I don't think so."

He closed his eyes again and slowly untwisted his body, seeming to search for a comfortable position.

"Seriously Doc, I dunno what happened exactly but you're acting...really hurt. And I won't let them arrest you."

His eyes flew open and he turned too quickly to face her. A long hiss of pain came from his lips and the glimpse of furor she saw in his eyes was quickly hidden behind tightly-closed lids. She approached until she was right next to the bed, now looking at him for signs of injury. But outwardly there was nothing she could see.

"Doc—"

"What are you really doing here? Get out," he said suddenly, his eyes flying open again.

She crossed her arms and frowned. "Sheesh, I'm just trying to help. You know whatever happened if it's serious it could—"

" _You_ happened! Now get out!" he said bitterly, glaring at her as he spoke before shifting onto his back and putting one fist behind his neck and the other beneath his low back.

Shego was genuinely confused. "'I' happened? What are you talking about?"

His eyes closed as he spoke this time. "I mean a green-skinned, comet-powered, self-serving, immature _traitor_ happened! So take your fake sympathy and try it on someone gullible enough to fall for it. I know better now."

Shego's lips were parted and her eyes wide and unblinking as she stared down at Drakken in a mixture of perplexity and astonishment. It wasn't that he had berated her. It was that he had meant it. And had chosen his words carefully, to hurt her.

Not that she was hurt. But she was confused.

"Uh...I think I'd remember if _I_ did something to make you need traction..." she said carefully.

He glanced at her briefly and then closed his eyes again, effectively dismissing her.

"It's not just what you did. Now go away."

Shego shook off the weird defensiveness she was feeling under his scrutiny and crossed her arms again. "No really, I'd remember doing something like this. Besides, I haven't even seen you since you decided to work with that stupid alien what's-her-face."

Somehow, that had been the wrong thing to say. Drakken's teeth bared as he opened his eyes to reveal a deep rage that sent Shego back a step, even before he had sat up and turned to face her.

"Exactly!"

He rose from the bed, somehow continuing to look menacing even as one hand rubbed his neck. He postured in front of her and with his other hand pointed toward his door. "Go. Away. Shego. Don't come back."

"What?" she asked, halting her retreat. She lifted her hands in a position of surrender. Everything was happening too fast, and none of it was making sense.

"Don't come back! _You're fired!_ "

She believed him, and yet she didn't. How could he fire her? They didn't even really take the letter of her contract seriously anymore. Did they?

His expression somehow said they did.

"What are you waiting for?" he snapped at her. 

She realized she must have been standing there for several seconds as she attempted to process this. His expression had lost none of its anger, and his shoulders were heaving with his labored breaths—whether all from his fury or from his injuries, she didn't know.

She felt her own pulse beginning to race and took a few slow breaths in an attempt to calm down. 

"You're going to have to explain this to me," she said, her voice coming out evenly. She shook her head as she finished. "Because I have no idea what you're talking about."

His eyes shone brighter and his breaths came more heavily. "Nyrrrgh! Daniels! Jameson!" he shouted.

In moments, the two henchmen came running in. "Yes boss?" they answered in unison.

"Show Shego to the door, she's leaving," he said, turning back to his bed without giving her a second glance.

She couldn't stop her heart from racing. He was dismissing her, just like that? As if she was nothing more than a henchwoman, and not his side-kick.

"Uh...okay. Um. Miss Shego?" Daniels said.

Now she was angry. She flared her hands and dared them with her eyes to even try making her leave.

Drakken glanced back at her over his shoulder, an action which caused him so much unexpected pain that he dropped down to one knee, his forearms hitting the mattress. He leaned heavily on it and waved the henchmen away.

"Never mind. I'll make her go. You can get back to work."

The two henchmen needed no further encouragement and scurried out of the room. Shego's hands remained lit as she stared at Drakken's back. She was furious with him. And not knowing what she had done to provoke him made it even worse, as she couldn't find anything to say. So without any specific outlet, she started in with the only ground she knew she could stand on.

"You can't just fire me!" she snarled. "I have a contract!"

"Like you've ever cared except when it benefits you!" he shouted back, his eyes fixed on the dirt-stained bedclothes.

Shego was about to retort, but paused when she realized he was probably right. As the years had passed she had taken more and more liberties, but always threw the legal document back in his face whenever he tried to take some of his own.

"You never seemed to care!" she said, letting her glow diminish as she studied him and tried to figure out what on earth had so gotten to him this time. It couldn't have been her vacation... When she went on extended vacations before, he just called and begged her to come back.

"Well now I do. So there!" he said, sitting back on his heels and laying his forehead down on his folded arms.

She wondered again about whatever injuries he may have beneath the surface. He was apparently blaming her for them, but she hadn't been the one to throw him through the roof... That had been the alien, and it had been over a week ago. She'd seen him take worse falls... Hadn't she?

"Dr. D.," she began carefully, changing tactics, "I know you don't care what I think right now, but...I'm really starting to get concerned. You're acting seriously injured. What happened to you?"

"You? Concerned?" he spat into the covers beneath his face.

Shego knelt down next to him and carefully began running her fingers up his spine. She certainly didn't know anything about medicine, but she hoped she would feel any obviously broken or displaced bone.

Drakken only shuddered slightly at her touch, which she found encouraging. He was mad at her, but as always she figured it was just bluster. He wouldn't really fire her... But to be driven to suggest it was still big. She held her breath as she cautiously began massaging his neck again, as she had on the sofa before. He had seemed the most like himself out there, in front of the henchmen.

His breath hitched at the press of her fingers, but something about it sounded off. And the tense way he was holding his shoulders was from more than the pain.

She lifted one hand to his temple and gently swept his hair back from the side of his face and behind his ear, and saw that hidden behind the dark locks there were tears dripping down his cheeks and falling onto the bed.

"What are you looking at?" he said bitterly without opening his eyes to look at her.

"...Nothing..." she said after a moment. She felt her heart beating harder again. "Why won't you tell me what happened?"

"I did."

Shego returned her hand to his neck and cautiously pressed into his tense muscles.

"You said _I_ hurt you. And I told you I'd remember doing this."

She glanced at his face where his eyes remained tightly closed, and his teeth were grinding against each other.

"If you want to work for me... Really, want to work for me, then I'm writing a new contract and you _will_ stick to it."

Her anger began building again as she stared at his tear-streaked face. "Look, if you're just gonna be immature and not tell me what this is about, then I—"

"You left me to die! Like you always do."

Shego's hands stopped as she stared at him through narrowed eyes. There were those words. Again. It was starting to make sense, but it wasn't in her nature to admit to any faults. 

"What? When have I ever—?"

He finally lifted his head to look at her. They were eye to eye, only inches apart, and she dropped her hands to her lap and sat back on her heels to put a little more space between them.

"Every time a plan goes south, you bail. But this... This was unforgivable, Shego," he said, turning away from her again.

The rejection was not something she was used to feeling. Fear and anger and desperation and confusion were all churning within her chest, distracting her as she tried to figure him out. Either he had lost his mind or she was missing something, because this wasn't one of his dramatic attempts to get her attention.

"Dr. D. I don't know what you're talking about," she said, trying to keep her voice as even as possible. But again, the statement only made him angry and with a deep inhale he pointed a finger toward the door again ready to tell her where she could go. But for some reason this time he held back the outburst and slowly dropped his hand. He stared unblinking at her and she shrank back even more at the look in his eyes. It was something deeper than any anger or rage she had seen.

"I would have drowned if the current hadn't carried me back to the beach. I couldn't swim with these injuries, after Warmonga threw me through the ceiling. And no I can't go to any hospital, because I'll just end up in jail forever. There won't be any _loyal_ alien with super-strength to break me out the next time, thanks to you."

Shego quickly processed everything he had said, the explanation for his injuries falling quickly into place. She fought down the guilt that tried to rise again at the reminder that she had simply left once the alien had decided she was done with her boss. And regarding prison...

"Doc, if you got arrested again I would break you out," she said as if it was obvious.

"Like you did last time!?" he shouted.

She leaned away from his outburst, her eyes widening in surprise at both his unquenchable rage and as the final piece finally clicked.

He was seething, his teeth bared and his eyes nearly standing out from his face as he glared at her. If he had been anyone else, she might have felt a little afraid.

She realized she was holding her breath as she answered him with a small shrug. "I would have gotten you out eventually. Sheesh..."

That had been the wrong thing to say, as a feral cry left his lips and his hands lunged toward her throat. She fell back on the floor and out of range of the attack with a choked gasp, raising a hand in front of her face instinctively.

Her shock was enough to startle him out of the rage. It was rare that she saw him so angry, but she realized in that moment that however he had earned his tear drop tattoo, he was most definitely capable of it. He was fully up on his knees now, his arms extended and fingers stretched murderously toward her. But his face was gradually disconnecting from his body as he realized the severity of his action.

He slowly sat down and let his hands drop to his lap, his eyes widening as he stared at her own astonished look. But it was only a moment before his expression changed again, and she saw a glimpse of sadness before he turned away with a frown.

"Go away," he said hoarsely, planting his face onto the dust-covered bedspread. He brought his fingers under his loose hair and began pressing them into the base of his skull. "Go work for Senior, or Eddie or...someone. Don't come back."

Shego realized her heart was pounding. And she realized that for a moment she'd thought she might have to fight him to protect herself, he was that angry. And she also knew without question...that he meant exactly what he said.

A strange clenching pain started in her chest, like the threads of a spiderweb wrapping tighter and tighter around her heart. As the feeling grew stronger and she found herself fighting against tears that wanted to form in her eyes, she also realized...she didn't want to leave.

He was still face-down on the bedspread, and by the erratic rise and fall of his shoulders she guessed he was crying again. She closed her eyes and took a long, slow breath to banish her own inexplicable tears and then rose to her feet. She took another breath, looking down at his tense form and then at the ruin of the room beyond. She looked over at the door, and...she couldn't walk toward it.

She took a quick step toward the bed and began sweeping more of the debris off of it, and kicked the rubble away from the once-grand piece of furniture. He lifted his head and narrowed his blood-shot eyes toward her.

"What are you doing?"

She didn't look at him. "Helping your neck. Lie on your back with your head this way," she instructed.

When he didn't move, she glanced at him. On his face was the mixture of distrust and hope that he had displayed earlier. She looked away and hugged herself, fairly certain now that anything she might say would only make the situation worse.

After a few moments, she heard him stand and sit on the bed, scooting over until he lay on the spot she had cleaned off. She glanced back at him cautiously.

"Move back so you can press the base of your skull against the edge of the mattress, and...just slightly hang your head off."

He complied, staring blankly at the ceiling until his head hung down off the foot of the bed at the slight angle she indicated, at which point he closed his eyes. He rolled his head from side to side until he found the perfect spot, and she watched as the tension began to leave his body as he finally found some relief. His face however, remained conflicted.

Shego gripped her forearms tighter as she watched him. The feeling of spiderwebs tightening around her heart hadn't decreased. In fact, it felt like the spider had bit her and the poison was seeping in.

She didn't understand why he was so angry. Maybe the pain he was in was making it worse? It was obvious now he'd been in pain for a week, since the alien incident... And now that she couldn't ignore it, she felt awful about leaving him potentially to die. She hadn't meant to. She'd just been so angry herself...

"Hey..." she heard herself say. His eyes opened and he looked at her upside down. "If you're mad because I left after Warmonga threw you through the roof, why did you replace me to begin with?"

He looked confused for the briefest moment, but then the fury was back.

"Because you left me in prison!" he tried to shout, but the angle of his head made it difficult; his words came out choked.

She opened her mouth to retort, but then remembered he had made to strangle her only moments ago when she had tried that before.

She grit her teeth. She did _not_ do feelings. But if she wanted to keep her job, it seemed she had no choice.

"I was angry, okay?" she turned toward him, hands balled into fists at her sides. "I could have died after the stupid Princess launched me into your Li'l Diablo control tower. I was electrocuted and crushed under rubble! _I_ could have died _there!_ And did you care? No, all you cared about was your _stupid_ plan being foiled again. I just wanted a break from you and your dumb ideas."

She stopped to catch her breath, and then found her throat constricting at the look on Drakken's face. His eyes had narrowed in confusion, and were now wide in disbelief. He slowly rolled around and sat up, his astonished eyes never leaving hers. Something about his expression caused her heart to beat rapidly against the walls of her chest. Had she missed something again?

He looked like he wanted to get angry, and there was a brief flash of it in his eyes as he licked his lips. But then he returned to the astonished disbelief that was making her more and more uncomfortable by the moment.

Too many seconds were passing. And he was never, ever this quiet.

"What?" she finally said, narrowing her eyes and hugging herself again as she turned half-way from him.

He pursed his lips, the lower one trembling as he seemed to fight against anger again. But his eyes left hers as he sighed, seemingly resolved about something. She turned back toward him hopefully, but he didn't look at her as he stood up and moved to the door.

The motion sensor still wasn't working, so he opened it manually.

"G-goodbye, Shego," he said, standing next to the door, staring straight ahead at the wall.

Her breath caught. What had she done wrong? What had she said? He was the one making a big deal out of something that wasn't that important! She was completely justified in leaving him in jail and wanting a break from him after that last disaster had left her in the hospital for weeks and then in prison.

"Drakken—"

"Goodbye, Shego," he said more loudly, folding his hands behind his back and drawing himself up taller.

"You're not the only one who gets to—"

"Goodbye, Shego!" he nearly shouted, glaring at her sharply.

The webs pulled tighter around her heart, and the poison stung deeper. But the fury in his eyes...and something else...were not going to abate in that moment, she realized. She would have to wait until he had cooled down, maybe wait until his neck and back weren't hurting so much... Then she could try again.

She took a shaky breath and started for the door.

He turned back to look at the wall when she began moving, and when she reached him he dropped his gaze to the floor. She paused as she heard him draw breath to speak.

"You're...a very evil villain, Shego. The evillest. And very capable...well, you know that."

She glanced sideways at him, but his gaze remained on the floor.

"If you ever...wanted to take over the world yourself, I'm sure you could accomplish it. I know I...wouldn't want the competition."

"Doc—"

"Please...don't ever come back here. I-I'll send your severance package to your post office box."

Shego felt tears threatening to form in her eyes, but this time measuring her breaths wasn't doing anything to hold them at bay.

"Dr. D.—"

"Goodbye, Shego," he said again, looking away from her and back into his room.

Sadness. That was the other look in his eyes. That was the feeling in her heart. The one she could identify, at least.

She hugged herself tightly as she finally stepped through the door. It closed so suddenly behind her that she gasped and hot tears spilled from her eyes down her cheeks.

Why was she sad? Why was _he_ sad? It was just a job. She was just his side-kick, following his orders through all his dumb plans to take over the world. None of it meant anything...

As she ran past the henchmen and out of the lair, she wondered when all of that had changed.


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Let me make it up to you. And whatever I did, I...I promise not to do it again," she said, the last coming out through gritted teeth. She didn't know why she was so desperate to work with him again, but she could figure that out later after she had her job back.
> 
> A familiar anger began to settle in his eyes and she took a fearful step back, right into the cyborg.
> 
> "You want to make it up to me?" he said in a low, even voice that made her skin crawl.
> 
> She swallowed and nodded slowly. She really did want to come back. 'It's just Drakken... How bad can it be?'
> 
> She didn't believe her own reassurances as he rubbed his hands and grinned evilly.
> 
> "I want you to kill Kim Possible."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: To my guest reviewer - thank you!!! And thanks everyone for the reviews, the feedback means SO much! Keep them coming!
> 
> Unrelated side-note: Regina, I think you missed chapter 11 of "The Little Ones." 
> 
> And now... Just what is going on with Drakken? Someone has already figured it out, but they don't know they have... Let's see what is revealed in this chapter.

_A/N: To my guest reviewer - thank you for the compliment!!! And thanks everyone for the reviews, the feedback means SO much! Keep them coming!_

_Unrelated side-note: Regina, I think you missed chapter 11 of "The Little Ones."_

_And now... Just what is going on with Drakken? Someone has already figured it out, but they don't know they have... Let's see what is revealed in this chapter._

* * *

**Chapter 3**

One week later, the pain in Shego's chest hadn't gone. It came and went throughout each day if she managed to find something to distract herself, but the moment she was idle the feeling returned with thoughts of Drakken. And every thought was surrounded by confusion.

She still didn't understand why he had dismissed her. It wasn't as if his time in prison had been awful. Sure, he came out with a few tattoos, but he also came out leaner and with more muscle tone. Prison had actually been good for him.

And the alien incident had been as much his fault as it had been hers. Sure, she may have left after he'd been thrown through the roof... But she was distracted by Kim Possible and by his actually replacing her with an alien that could have killed her. He couldn't ignore his own mistakes in that circumstance. And despite her mocking his intelligence, he was smart enough to recognize the facts.

So why was he so angry?

On the eighth day of being fired, her impatience with him had grown to the point of sending her back to the lair. He couldn't just fire her without giving her a real reason. And...she didn't want to be fired. The week away from him—from the lair, from her job—had been torture. All she could think about was wanting to go back. If it took apologizing for leaving him in prison, and for leaving after the alien incident, she would grit her teeth and do it. Though she still couldn't get past that neither event seemed like enough reason to fire her.

Something else had to be going on.

A short ride through sunny skies on her hover-board brought her back to his favorite lair in the Caribbean, and she noted on her approach that the scaffolding was gone. Had he finished the reconstruction that fast?

She landed her hover-board next to the hover-car and strode confidently across the balcony. Or at least, that was the air she hoped to project. Inside her chest the pain had been increasing the closer she got to the lair, and now every step was like a small knife in her heart.

She paused at the doorway. What was _wrong_ with her?

Taking a deep breath, she went inside and her eyes widened at the sparkling fresh look to the ancient volcanic core-turned-lair. It looked cleaner than she had ever seen it. The couch was back in its place and appeared as if it had been dry-cleaned. There was a new, larger TV in place of the one that had been destroyed in the collapse, and new steel studs ran up to a what appeared to be a steel ceiling where the roof had been destroyed.

"Whoa..." she breathed, walking past the living room toward Drakken's office. The pain in her chest abated momentarily at the sight of henchmen skittering away as she passed, and a small smirk crept onto her face. Very smart of them to still fear her, even if she wasn't technically on the books anymore.

Reaching the office, she entered the broad doorway and felt her chest constrict again as she saw Drakken bent over some broadly-spread blueprints on his desk. He was right back to work, as if her absence didn't mean anything. He had one hand behind his head, rubbing his neck.

She took a deep breath. "Neck still bothering you?"

He had the decency to be startled, but the deep frown on his face when he met her eyes gave her pause.

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to see if you had died or not," she said with a smirk. She regretted the words instantly. If she wanted the job so much, why couldn't she just talk to him?

His lip curled into a snarl and he glared in anger, but while he looked at her face he never fully met her eyes. She was surprised when he went back to his blueprints a moment later, his expression returning to his usual grimace of mild annoyance.

"Sorry to disappoint you," he said flatly.

A silent gasp left her lips. Was he past whatever had made him so angry before?

"You done being mad at me?" she said, stepping closer and leaning up against the desk.

He glanced at her briefly, meeting her eyes this time. "Maybe. If you leave."

She bit her lip and sat on the edge of the desk. He looked up again, his brow furrowing in annoyance.

"Did you forget how to listen? Never mind, you never did know," he said, looking back at his blueprint.

Shego pursed her lips and took a deep breath. "What are you working on?" she asked, changing tactics. He didn't answer, and she leaned closer to the papers. "A ray gun? What happened to the old one?"

"Lost it..." he muttered, scribbling something on a notepad next to the blueprints.

"Where? I haven't seen you use it in years," she said with a chuckle.

She watched him grind his teeth for a moment before responding. "The...Li'l Diablos. The tower," he said lowly.   
  
"Huh? I don't remember that."

He tore the page out of the notepad and turned in one quick gesture and headed to the lab. "You were unconscious at the time."

She jumped off the desk and followed after him, catching up to walk at his side.

"When was I unconscious?"

He rolled his eyes in response as the doors to the lab opened.

"Jameson," he called one of the henchmen, "go steal these things," he instructed, thrusting the paper toward the red-clad man.

Jameson glanced warily at Shego as he took the paper, and then beckoned two other henchmen to him. She watched as the three scurried out of the lab, while Drakken strode purposefully on to the door of his private lab. She hurried to catch up.

"Why are you still here?" Drakken asked in annoyance as he entered the door code into the control panel.

She held her breath. She could say something sarcastic again, or... "I want my job back," she said in a rush.

His brow rose and he scrutinized her for a moment, turning away with a frown as the door opened.

"The side-kick position is closed," he said.

Her jaw dropped as she watched his retreating back. He had replaced her already? _Again?_

The door slid shut, and with a frown she put the code in again to follow after him. He wasn't getting away with a remark like that. Her heart pounded as the door opened and she ran in after him.

"Wait. What do you mean—" She stopped as she saw him standing over a dimly-lit table that held a very suspicious object. She slowly stepped up beside him, her eyes widening as she caught sight of what he was grinning over.

"Meet my new bodyguard," he declared when she reached his side.

She looked down at a female-modeled cyborg with surprisingly bland features, no hair, and no clothing—only a matte-silver body.

"Again with the robots, Dr. D.? Didn't the Li'l Diablos teach you anything?"

He looked up, and his eyes seemed to look right through her. His expression was melancholy, but it only lasted a moment before he turned away with a grimace.

"Indeed they did," he said, turning toward the control panel of the construction table. "An evil dictator must have someone by their side they can trust. Otherwise they risk being overthrown from within."

Shego's brow furrowed. Just what was he saying?

"So I've built the perfect bodyguard. Incapable of treachery."

Shego frowned and crossed her arms. "Like the Bebes?"

Drakken glanced back at her and grinned for the first time. "I didn't give her that much artificial intelligence. I've scaled it back. Her sole purpose is to protect me."

"Doesn't sound like much of a side-kick to me," Shego scoffed.

Drakken leaned back against the console and crossed his arms. He looked thoughtful.

"Sadly, no. But sacrifices must be made for the sake of world conquest. A dictator..." he glanced away, and she raised her brow, "can't have a side-kick."

Shego's frown deepened. "Since when!?"

Drakken turned and pushed a button on the console. The light above the cyborg went out and the lithe, metallic creature slowly sat upright.

"Pistis, show Shego to the door," Drakken said.

Shego instinctively took a defensive stance as the cyborg rose to its eight-foot height and approached her, its eyes shining a bright, menacing white. As it took slow, heavy steps she backed away, her mind a whirl. How had he had time to do this in one week? Had he been planning to replace her all along? Why didn't he want a side-kick anymore?

When the cyborg was a mere three feet away, she fired a small, test-blast of her glow at it. She gasped when an orange shield surrounded the bot's metallic figure and deflected her blast harmlessly into the wall.

"What do you take me for, Shego? The first thing I did was make it impervious to your powers."

"Rrghh..." she growled. In a flash of anger, she turned and fired a blast at him. He smiled smugly as the cyborg dashed in front of him and deflected the shot again, this time straight toward Shego. She ducked and dodged the blast, staring at Drakken in shock.

She didn't have time to say anything as the cyborg dashed toward her with lightning speed. She flipped backward to avoid its attack, but it was in front of her in an instant. She raised a leg to kick it away, but Drakken's voice instantly halted its attack.

"Pistis, stop. We'll give Shego another chance to leave on her own."

The cyborg slowly returned to a docile stance, but its bright, hollow gaze remained on her face. Shego stepped around it in a broad circle with a grimace of horror. Drakken was leaning against the console, a confident smirk on his face. The look in his eyes...indicated no fear whatsoever.

Shego frowned. Not afraid of her anymore, was he?

She glanced back over her shoulder at the cyborg that had turned and was following her with its eyes. She took slow, careful steps toward Drakken until she was a mere five feet away. And then she fired an enormous green blast at him with both hands.

An orange shield sprung up around him, deflecting the blast away. She barely had time to register what had happened before the cyborg had lifted her off the ground by her throat, restricting her air supply.

"Pistis, put her down. We don't need to hurt her if she leaves," Drakken said almost giddily as he grinned.

As Shego was released she stared into the confident, menacing eyes of her former employer. The longer she looked at him, the less and less he looked like the person she thought she knew.

"Drakken..." she coughed, pausing to rub her throat as she breathed carefully. The cyborg still loomed over her shoulder. "Whatever I did...I'm sorry, okay?"

A flicker of something passed through his eyes. She had been despairing seconds earlier, but now she saw a glimmer of hope.

"Let me make it up to you. And whatever I did, I...I promise not to do it again," she said, the last coming out through gritted teeth. She didn't know why she was so desperate to work with him again, but she could figure that out later after she had her job back.

A familiar anger began to settle in his eyes and she took a fearful step back, right into the cyborg.

"You want to make it up to me?" he said in a low, even voice that made her skin crawl.

She swallowed and nodded slowly. She really did want to come back. _'It's just Drakken... How bad can it be?'_

She didn't believe her own reassurances as he rubbed his hands and grinned evilly.

"I want you to kill Kim Possible."

* * *

Shego sped away from the lair on her hover-board, her heart pounding. She replayed the brief-but-eventful last twenty minutes in her head as she sped across the ocean toward the mainland, where she would fulfill his orders.

 _"Bonus points if you get the buffoon and his rodent. If you get her computer kid too, we'll call it even,"_ he had said as a farewell.

She still wasn't sure what exactly she was making even for, anyway. Yes, she'd left him in prison. But he'd nearly gotten her killed! And yes, she'd been mad and left him to whatever fate Warmonga had for him. But weren't they already even then, after Kim Possible had nearly killed her at the tower?

She was still missing something, she decided, and Drakken wasn't talking. But the tattoos on his face certainly were.

One solid tear drop, and one in outline. Murder and attempted murder. It must have happened sometime before she knew him, because in their years together they had never actually killed anyone. Sent countless people to the hospital, yes, but no one had ever died that she knew of. She always checked the news after a failed plot to see if that was the case.

She shivered against the whip of the wind against her face and rubbed her arms briefly as the mainland came in sight. It wasn't that she was above killing people, it was just...she didn't like the idea of innocent bystanders getting killed; a leftover instinct from her hero days.

Kim Possible, however...

Shego ground her teeth at the memory of the violent kick into the tower, the pain of the electricity, and then the impact of something hard on her back and midsection. All she remembered beyond that was pain, the bark of police dogs, and getting arrested. And Drakken's whining about his failed plans all the way to the hospital, where they were parted. He was so selfish.

Her eyes narrowed at the memory of his claim that Warmonga was better than her. After spending the better part of three years at his beck and call, that was all she got? And then that alien was... That alien was going to be given the pleasure of defeating Kim Possible? Nuh-uh, no way. Not a chance.

Shego reached the mainland and headed to the airport, wondering how much it would cost to check her hover-board. Taking Kimmie out would be painfully easy, and she wanted to get it over with. Maybe then she could get Drakken to talk and find out why her chest hurt so much at the thought of not working for him anymore.

* * *

Shego hovered conspicuously over the roof of the high school, but she didn't care. If she was spotted it would only help her, because then Kim Possible would come after her.

She sighed. Now that she was actually lying in wait to kill the teen hero, the idea of completing the task wasn't all that thrilling. In fact, she was feeling a bit sick to her stomach. This wouldn't be like winning a fight against the cheerleader when she was foiling their plans. This would be cold-blooded murder.

But, the pain in her chest far outweighed the churning of her stomach. Her mind was made up. 

She heard the school bell ring below and students began exiting through various doors of the building. Shego scanned the crowd until she spotted the familiar thick red hair, and of course, a shock of messy blond hair close by.

She rolled her eyes as she aimed her hover-board down at the crowd and crouched low. She wanted to get this right the first time.

She heard the gasps and cries of other teens as she swept by, but she ignored them all in favor of her target. Kim turned around just as Shego reached her and in one quick move she had grabbed the teen by the hair and was sailing back up into the sky.

"K.P.!" she heard Stoppable shout, but she ignored him as she used her toe to tap the controls and set the board cruising to its pre-programmed altitude high inside the clouds. She remained in a sturdy, half-crouched stance as the teen struggled, the girl's hands clenching Shego's wrists as she protested her capture with grunts and gasps of pain.

"Just...ngh, hold still!" Shego said when she was nearly thrown off-balance. "This'll be over soon."

The hover-board was rising at top-speed due to the booster rockets underneath that Drakken had installed, and was already several hundred feet up into the sky. Not nearly high enough for Shego's taste, but, she also wanted to finish the task quickly before Stoppable could begin some lame rescue attempt. And she also didn't want to think about what she was doing any longer than she had to.

"What— What's the big idea!?" Kim shouted, still yanking on Shego's wrists to alleviate the pain on her scalp.

Shego didn't answer, waiting for the hover-board to rise higher. Talking wouldn't serve any purpose.

"Whoa!" A sudden sharp tug on her arm caused her to nearly pitch forward, and she leaned back and bent her knees further to maintain her balance. Kim used the chance to grab the edge of the board with one hand, and then she swung up with a hard kick to Shego's chest.

The impact caused the villainess to let go of the teen's hair as she was flung backward off of her board. She barely managed to grab the edge of it with one hand and dug her titanium-tipped gloves into the surface.

"Wanna tell me what this is about?"

Kim's voice from above changed Shego's fear to anger, and she swung up much the same way Kim had and swept the teen's legs out from under her. She deftly righted herself, glaring at the teen who was holding her head with one hand and holding onto the board with the other, sitting on the front end where she'd fallen.

Shego crouched at the back end, staring at her nemesis as she caught her breath. One well-placed and kick and it would be over. Kim's look of confusion gave her pause though, and the ill-feeling in her stomach grew.

"Look, I didn't want it to be this way, okay? I'm sorry," she said through a scowl, taking a deep breath as she stood back up on the board. The wind whipped her dark hair into her face, and she pulled it back. They were approaching the lowest layer of clouds.

"Wait... Are you trying to kill me??" Kim said as she jumped up into a crouch, her eyes wide.

A whir of rockets sounded off to the left, and both women looked over as Ron spun up past them on a jet pack. Shego rubbed her face with one hand. This plan was already going south.

"I don't get it. A little over two weeks ago you saved me from that alien," Kim said.

The reminder strengthened Shego's resolve, and she frowned. "It's the only way Drakken will let me come back to work," she admitted.

"He threw you out? Why?" Kim said, carefully standing on the still-speeding board.

"I don't know. Every time I try to talk to him, he gets mad," she said, crossing her arms and looking away.

Kim still stood in a fighting stance, hands up on guard. "Maybe he's mad 'cause you betrayed him and took away his victory?"

"Huh?" Shego looked back.

"When you stopped that alien from killing me and then turned her against him."

Shego blinked. That had never even occurred to her as a possibility. Did he think she'd been working against him on purpose?

_"I mean a green-skinned, comet-powered, self-serving, immature **traitor** happened!"_

Stoppable descended and matched their speed with his jet pack, but he was still about twenty feet away. Of course, Kim could make that jump easily.

"Come on, K.P.!"

Shego took a fighting stance. She wasn't giving up that easily. Kim on the other hand, had relaxed her position opposite on the hover-board.

"Or maybe how you just went back to the spa after the alien threw him through the roof? _Especially_ after what he did for you..."

"Yeah, we've been over— Wait, what do you mean 'what he did for me'?"

"Yeah...I could see that setting him off," Ron said, hovering closer now.

"Zip it!" Shego said, resuming her fighting stance. The conversation was pointless. Drakken was replacing her with a creepy robot unless she proved herself by killing Kim Possible, so that was exactly what she was going to do. No matter how sick the idea made her feel.

Kim frowned and resumed her stance as well, inches separating the two.

Shego smirked and fired a green blast at Ron's jet pack, causing it to explode and sending him spinning down toward the ground.

"Kim!!!" he cried, arms flailing.

The teen heroine was only distracted for a moment, but that was all Shego needed to kick her fiercely and send her sailing down after her boyfriend. She slowed the hover-board to a stop and peered down as the red-head aimed herself directly at the spinning boy, catching up to him in short order. Then a parachute opened and filled above them.

"Oh, for crying out loud," Shego said, and began firing her glow at the billowing nylon. She was rewarded moments later with three small holes appearing in the material, collapsing it and sending the pair plummeting again.

"Hmm," Shego smirked. But the satisfaction she felt only lasted a moment before bile rose in her throat. She didn't wait to see the grisly end, and turned the hover-board back toward the airport at top speed. She could be back at the lair in just a few hours...


	5. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He pushed himself up suddenly, his eyes narrowed and staring beyond his headboard back to where the moat flowed from. She scooted around to be in his line of sight, pressing herself back against the headboard. His eyes finally fell on hers, and they were full again of the bitter look of betrayal that she was finally starting to understand.
> 
> "What happened after the tower collapsed? The only thing I remember is dogs barking and being handcuffed, and you ranting the whole way to the hospital."
> 
> Drakken looked down sadly. "Go away, Shego," he whispered.
> 
> "Not until you tell me what I'm missing. That's why you're so mad at me, isn't it? It has to do with something that happened that night. But if I was unconscious, I don't know what happened! You can't be mad at me about something I don't even know about!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Thank you reviewers!!! Your reviews make me so happy, keep them coming!
> 
> And so... Has Shego really done the unthinkable? Will Drakken respond favorably? Just **what** is making the mad scientist extra mad? What is going on!?

**Chapter 4**

Shego landed the hover-board next to the hover-car back at the lair. The sun was setting, warming the cliffs as she leapt off her transport and headed for the door. But she found the heat uncomfortable as she hunched over slightly, hugging herself from the pain in both her stomach and her chest.

Once the door slid closed behind her she stopped, suddenly not wanting to face Drakken. What if he decided her efforts weren't enough and set his freaky new cyborg on her again?

She turned into the living room instead and sat heavily on the couch, staring at the new big-screen TV. How had he been able to afford a new TV? Or the lair reconstruction, for that matter? Hadn't all of his assets been confiscated during the months he was in prison?

She felt a pang in her chest again and grimaced. Actually thinking about it now...he had a pretty fair point on that end at least. Both times she had escaped from the prison she had rubbed her freedom in his face. And the next time he saw her, she was mocking him and taking away his chance at villainous redemption.

The Li'l Diablos plan had been good. So was exploiting the alien. And she had ruined it because...she was jealous? Of an alien who was all brawn and no brains? Sure, she had been pretty, but Drakken never paid attention to that sort of thing.

_'Wait, why do I care?'_

She shook her head to get rid of the non sequitur and thought back to the amazing technology Warmonga had brought. She could have just...joined in, and they'd be ruling the world—or perhaps a few worlds—at this moment if only she hadn't been jealous of the alien woman.

Drakken had every right to replace her just because of the prison-thing. But she saw clearly now how he might view her stopping the alien as a direct betrayal. And villains had trust issues as it was.

She sighed and leaned forward, running her hands through her wind-tangled hair before resting one elbow on her knee and her chin on her closed fist. She turned the TV on with the remote and began flipping through channels, looking for the news. If she _had_ succeeded in killing Kim Possible, it would be everywhere.

The sound of footsteps approaching and then stopping abruptly drew her attention, and in the doorway she saw a henchman in plain-clothes with a duffel bag thrown over his shoulder. He was looking at her uncertainly, his eyes darting to the door to the exit on the other side of the sofa.

"Um..."

"Just go, Daniels."

"Are you un-fired yet?" the nervous man asked as he quickly stepped around the couch.

"I don't know," she said, muting the TV and leaning back.

"Well...if you're looking for Dr. Drakken, I think he went to bed."

"Bed?" Shego glanced at the orange-hued sunset sky through the door as the henchman made his quick exit. It was way too early. And Drakken barely slept anyway.

She stood up and against her better judgment headed to his room. Maybe he was sick or something.

When she reached the metal door she raised her fist to knock, but then biting her lip she put in the long-memorized code that he had never changed. The door slid open and revealed the reconstructed room, moat and all. It looked as good as new. It also revealed Drakken standing on the opposite side of the room, shirtless and staring at his reflection in a floor-length mirror.

At the sound of the door he turned with a gasp, holding up his white t-shirt in front of him to cover his chest with one hand while the other aimed a ray gun at her.

"Shego!" he scolded, turning his back to her and scrambling into his shirt.

Shego rolled her eyes as she stepped inside, the door sliding closed behind her.

"You act like I haven't seen you wearing far less," she said blandly as she picked her way around the twists of the moat.

Drakken frowned as he tucked his t-shirt into his pants, tossing the ray gun onto his bed. "What are you doing here? How did you get—"

He stopped as a light came to his eyes, and he ran the few steps to stand opposite her on the other side of the moat.

"Did you...did you do it?" He clasped his hands in front of him, his feet dancing in excitement. "Did you kill Kim Possible?"

He looked so much like his old self that she almost told him yes. But she had a feeling that lying wouldn't endear her to him.

"I'm not sure."

His dancing stopped as the giddy smile slowly melted away into a scowl, and back was the disdain and anger he had been treating her with ever since she first returned to the lair over a week prior.

"I mean, I dropped her off my hover-board from almost a thousand feet up," she said quickly.

He raised his brow at her suspiciously.

"But she had a parachute, so I blasted holes in it."

Drakken's eyes narrowed. "So...she...?"

"I just...didn't stick around to watch the splat," she said, crossing her arms and looking away. "But I tried. Oh, and Stoppable went down with her. And I'm sure he had the rat. So I mean..." she shrugged, "they're probably dead."

Drakken turned and picked up his lab coat that had been laid across his bed. He eyed it, apparently debating whether or not to put it on.

"Why didn't you make sure?"

Shego closed her eyes tightly. She felt like she might throw up, and her chest was still hurting. She supposed at this point she had nothing left to lose.

"I didn't like just killing them. Kicking them around is fun, but...they're just kids."

Drakken turned with a confused scowl. "You didn't like 'just killing them'?" he said incredulously.

Shego stared down into the glowing waters of the moat that were designed to intimidate. They certainly weren't helping the current situation. She didn't like this new side of Drakken that was ready to order the deaths of kids without a thought—a side of him that she was apparently responsible for awakening.

"You're a mercenary, it's what you do!" he yelled at her, his fists balled at his sides.

Shego leapt across the moat, her heart pounding as she walked up to him. He seemed surprised by her action as his anger suddenly gave way to confusion, and he dropped his lab coat back on the bed. Stopping in front of him, she reached up and pointed at the two teardrop tattoos next to his eye, touching him for a moment.

"What did you do to get these?"

Drakken seemed embarrassed for a moment as his un-gloved fingers touched the spot where her fingers had just been. "Oh, well... It was actually self-defense. He was going to kill me. I was just trying to stop him... I didn't mean to."

The tiniest grin turned up one corner of Shego's mouth, but she kept her amusement to herself.

"And the attempted murder?"

Drakken suddenly frowned. "I _wish_ I had finished that one! I had him right where he deserved to be! But the guards got there too soon."

"Guards?"

"At the prison. I had the most annoying cell mate on the planet! And he was stupid enough afterward to think that I just wanted to have a pillow fight, and that I didn't _realize_ I was cutting off his air supply!"

Shego's eyes widened.

"I would have tried again too, if Warmonga hadn't—"

He stopped, a look of anguish coming over his face before he turned his back to her and took several steps away. He reached one hand up to rub his neck as he hung his head low.

"Dr. D.," Shego said, heart pounding as she hurried after him, "I... I'm sorry."

He didn't say anything, and she lightly rested a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry I didn't break you out, and...I'm sorry I got in your way when Warmonga was helping you take over the world. And I'm sorry I didn't make sure you were okay after she attacked you."

As she was speaking she felt the tension slowly fall out of his shoulders, but at the last it came back in full and he stepped out from under her touch again.

"I won't do anything like that again...if you let me come back," she finished, clasping her hands tightly together in front of her.

He gave her a suspicious, sideways glance. "Why do you want to come back?"

She felt a lump start to rise in her throat, but she took a deep breath and swallowed it down. "Because...I like being your side-kick," she said with a shrug, rubbing one of her arms.

He continued looking at her peripherally, the suspicion giving way to that same, strange sadness that had gone in and out of his eyes since the first time she came back and found him injured. She realized then he was still rubbing his neck.

"Is your neck okay?" she asked, taking a step closer. He held his breath on her approach, and she stopped short.

"It...comes and goes," he said, turning to face her a bit more. "I was going to see if sleep would help, actually, so if you could just—"

"I could give you a massage, if you want," she interrupted in a rush.

He pursed his lips, looking worried. And suddenly they were back to where they had been a week prior, except now the lair was clean. "Um. Well..."

"I want to help," she said, dropping her hands and trying to look as un-intimidating as possible.

He bit his lower lip, and then turned to head into his bathroom.

Shego blinked at the closed door he'd vanished behind. He hadn't said no...

She turned back to his bed and tossed his lab coat aside onto a chair, and then picked up the ray gun. It was an upgrade to the old design of the one he'd been using when she first came to work for him. She realized that between the time she'd come to see him that morning and now, he had managed to obtain all of the supplies and finish constructing it. She wondered how he had gotten everything together so fast.

She turned at the sound of the door opening, and he came back into the room wearing the same thin t-shirt but with blue sweat pants now instead of the slacks he favored under his lab coat, and socks.

"Shego... I think you should just leave," he said with an anxious frown, his fingers tapping together in front of him.

She took a deep breath. "Look, Doc... I feel really bad about everything. I want to do something to help."

The suspicion started to return to his eyes and she hurried to his side, grabbing his tattooed-elbow with her free hand and pushing him toward the bed. She wouldn't give him a choice.

"Come on, you'll feel like your old self in no time," she said with a forced grin.

He rolled his eyes and crawled across the bed on hands and knees until he reached the headboard where he finally lay face down with his hands under his forehead. "I doubt it."

She dropped the ray gun on the mattress near his feet and crawled up next to him on the huge, round bed. She sat back on her heels and reached for his neck, but then stopped short. She held her hands in front of her and studied the damage to her titanium glove-tips from hanging onto the hover-board earlier.

She pulled her gloves off quickly and tossed them aside, not wanting to scratch him, and then began feeling along the tense muscles of his neck.

"Wow, Doc..." she said quietly as she continued feeling up and down and along the sides of his neck. "You'd think you'd been carrying this tension for twenty years."

"Sounds about right..." he mumbled into the sheets.

She pressed her fingers into the muscles at the center of his neck at the base of his skull and began pulling out to the sides. It was only moments before he sighed, and she felt him relax more heavily into the mattress.

"Told you it would help," she said.

He grunted in reply, and she continued working on his neck silently, realizing she probably shouldn't push her luck. After several minutes she realized the tension went up into his scalp muscles too, and she pulled his ponytail free so she could work on those muscles without pulling his hair.

"What did you like," his voice startled her, "about being my side-kick?"

She felt a lump rise in her throat at his past-tense use of her title, but she coughed to dismiss it before answering.

"Lots of action, lots of variety... Lots of evil. Good pay..." She felt her chest constrict, and she took a deep breath. "A good boss, who...is going to take over the world someday."

Her fingers had disappeared under his thin, dark hair as she pressed them into his scalp, working up and down the back of his skull and back down his neck again. He turned his head slightly so he could look up at her with one eye.

"And I still want to help," she said, exhaling slowly. Her chest felt tight under his scrutiny. He seemed to be assessing the veracity of her words.

She wasn't sure what else she could do to prove herself to him. Except maybe go back and make sure Kim Possible was dead. Her stomach twisted at the thought, and she looked down at the threadbare t-shirt he wore to distract herself. It was so old and thin, she could see the silhouette of his back-tattoo through it. She curled her hands into fists and began kneading her knuckles along his spine down his back.

She glanced at his face again, and he was still scrutinizing her with that mixture of distrust, sadness, and hope. She glanced around quickly for a distraction, and her eyes landed on the ray gun.

"You going to sleep with that ray gun under your pillow?"

He grimaced. "Maybe."

"I'm surprised you don't keep that metal colossus in here to protect you at night," she said, referring to the very efficient cyborg he had also whipped up in only a week's time.

"I tried that. Too creepy."

She chuckled and began turning her knuckles in circles over some sore spots next to his shoulder blades. He gasped when she hit a particularly tender spot, and she lightened up on the pressure.

"Shego, tell me again why you're doing this?"

She bit her cheek as she felt her chest constrict again. "I want to help. I feel bad about everything that happened."

The vibration of her PDA against her calf drew her attention, and she frowned at the pouch where she kept the state-of-the-art device. It was a single long buzz, indicating an email. Which was unusual because had disabled email on that device.

"Hold on a second," she said, shifting her legs out from under her and reaching into the pouch for the device. She flipped the cover up and frowned at the symbol on the screen. Email had been re-enabled somehow. She opened the program and then her eyes widened at the message on the liquid-crystal display. 

"What is it?" he asked, lifting his head to rest on his fists as he looked at her.

"Um..." It was from Kim Possible. She had survived after all, and was apparently well-enough to be...sending her emails? How had she even gotten her email address?

A brief image of the smirking child-hacker the teen worked with flashed across her mind, and she grimaced as she opened the email. It contained only a hyperlink to a popular news website. Curious, she grabbed her stylus and opened up the link.

"What is it?" Drakken asked again. Shego kept her eyes focused on the screen. There was no way she was telling him that Kim Possible was alive. At least, not until she had her job back. The web page was slowly loading. She tried to think of an excuse.

"It's just an ad," she said, remembering the title of the next unread message in her inbox. "Upcoming sale on all HenchCo products."

Drakken dropped his forehead on the sheets again. "I got that one yesterday... Why do you care?"

The webpage was loading too slowly on Drakken's cheap internet connection. She wouldn't be able to come up with an excuse to wait to read it, and was about to flip the cover closed when the headline materialized in blocky, black text.

_'Dr. Drakken and Shego arrested after six-hour man hunt. List of countries impacted by Bueno Nacho toys increases.'_

Her brow furrowed in confusion, and she scanned the top of the page for a date on the article. She found it, and her confusion only grew. The article was from the day after Kim Possible stopped the Li'l Diablo plot. The day after the tower.

"I'm...looking for an upgrade to my gloves, so I don't have to file the nails after every fight. They get damaged too easily," she said, closing the PDA and placing it back into her pouch. 

She stared blankly at the wall as she resumed kneading Drakken's back. The headline kept playing in front of her eyes as she moved her fingers slowly up and down either side of his spine. 

_'Six-hour man hunt? That doesn't make sense...'_

Her brow twisted as she tried to find some way to make sense of the time period the headline described, but nothing was coming. And for some reason, Kim Possible had wanted her to see it.

Her gaze drifted around the room, from the walls, to the moat, to Drakken's back, to his oh-so-comfortable bed spread, and finally to the ray gun she had dropped next to his feet. Something in her memory clicked.

"Hey...Dr. D.?" she asked, drawing her knuckles across his low back.

"Mm?"

"What happened to your old ray gun?"

She felt him tense under her hands, and she knew she'd finally hit upon it. Something about his anger and distrust of her had to do with the rarely-used weapon, and for some reason Kim Possible understood what it was. And the teen hadn't even known about their falling-out until a few hours prior when she'd told her.

"I lost it," he finally said, letting out a breath.

"I remember... This morning you said you lost it after Kim Possible stopped your toy robot takeover plan. And you said that I don't remember you using it because I was unconscious. When was I unconscious?"

He tensed further with every word she spoke, and she leaned back and set her hands on her hips.

"Doc, if you tense up this massage isn't going to do any good."

He pushed himself up suddenly, his eyes narrowed and staring beyond his headboard back to where the moat flowed from. She scooted around to be in his line of sight, pressing herself back against the headboard. His eyes finally fell on hers, and they were full again of the bitter look of betrayal that she was finally starting to understand.

"What happened after the tower collapsed? The only thing I remember is dogs barking and being handcuffed, and you ranting the whole way to the hospital."

Drakken looked down sadly. "Go away, Shego," he whispered.

"Not until you tell me what I'm missing. That's why you're so mad at me, isn't it? It has to do with something that happened that night. But if I was unconscious, I don't know what happened! You can't be mad at me about something I don't even know about!"

Drakken glanced up briefly, a sour look on his face.

"What? The police take your precious ray gun but I wasn't awake to get it back for you?"

"Shut up!" he snapped, and her eyes widened. He sighed and sat back, crossing his legs. She slowly mirrored his pose, watching him nervously. Was she going to have to dodge another attempted murder-by-strangling? Or apparently, she thought as she peripherally saw his pillows, he favored suffocation...

When he began speaking he didn't look up.

"Stoppable was gloating over me when the tower collapsed. I didn't see it happen. I used his distraction to get into the hover-car and escape, but...then I realized you weren't there. I put two and two together and went back to find you. The police were already there. You were pinned beneath broken concrete and a piece of steel frame. I...couldn't get you out, and the flames were getting closer."

Shego's eyes widened as her mind went back to that night. She remembered pain, and electricity, but nothing of what he was saying.

"The firemen helped me get you out, and then...I shot them with the ray gun to escape. That's when I lost it. We got away in the hover-car, but a police helicopter was after us in minutes. It was still raining, and they kept shining a spotlight in my eyes. We crashed outside the city in a small oak forest next to some farm land. We got pretty far... But they had dogs after us so it didn't matter. They never lost our scent. Especially after the rain stopped. They caught us at dawn."

"Wait, I'm still not getting something," Shego said, holding up a hand to stop him. "I thought you said I was unconscious?"

Confusion peeked through the sadness on Drakken's face. "You were."

"Then how did I escape with you?"

Drakken blinked. "I carried you," he said, as if it was obvious.

" _You,_ carried _me_?" she asked, blinking back at him skeptically. He hadn't gotten in shape until prison.

His gaze fell to his lap as he grit his teeth. Her breath caught at his sudden change of mood.

"I couldn't leave you behind," he said emphatically, his fingers grasping the bedspread and twisting it around.

Shego's eyes widened.

_"They caught us at dawn."_

It finally made sense. She felt her heart drop into the pit of her stomach as she looked at the bitter expression on his face.

He had done everything...un-villain-like, including give up his own chance at freedom, to ensure her safety and well-being. He had _struggled_ to keep her safe. And he'd done it all without expecting anything from her in return. She hadn't even known he'd done it. And when she'd had multiple opportunities to do the same, she shoved his loyalty back in his face...and laughed.

She blinked several times in quick succession, her breaths becoming more difficult as she stared down at her lap. Of _course_ he was upset. She had mocked him, betrayed him, and left him to die. Exactly the opposite of everything he had done for her. He'd demonstrated loyalty beyond measure. And she...

His words from earlier that day came back to her, right before he'd set the cyborg after her. _"A dictator can't have a side-kick. Otherwise they risk being overthrown from within. A dictator needs someone by their side they can trust."_

Everything she'd done since they'd been arrested had demonstrated clearly to him...she wasn't that person.

Her chest hurt, and she felt sick. She didn't blame him for being mad anymore. And then she wondered, as she had so many times during the last week while she'd been fired—why did it matter? It was just a job. 

...Right...?

She looked up and then like a slap to the face, she realized it wasn't. She cast her eyes around to their surroundings. She had been sitting on his _bed_ , giving him a massage. And he had let her. And he had let her do the same a week ago when he'd been even angrier.

She groaned internally. Had villain and side-kick somehow become...friends? Close friends? Clearly they had. Otherwise they wouldn't both be so miserable right now. 'Just co-workers' didn't behave the way they were.

"Shego..." he said quietly, his eyes on his fingers twisting in the bed covers. His voice, determined as it had been a week ago, was like a dagger in her heart. "I...can't work with you anymore. I'm sorry. I'll give you anyth—"

"No!" she growled and reached forward, her fingers latching onto his shoulders. His eyes widened. "I don't want to work for anyone else. I want to work for you!"

He stared at her in confusion and astonishment. She knew she'd never acted so...out-of-control around him. Her control was one of her strengths. But she didn't know what to do to convince him anymore.

"I want to help you make crazy weapons and overly-elaborate plans. And I want to make fun of Dementor and everyone else with you when they try to take over the world and fail, because they could never come up with anything as brilliant as you can. And...I want to go to karaoke on Friday nights, and fall asleep during the _Snowman Hank_ marathon at Christmas, and...tease you until you yell at me, because it can get boring when you're working in the lab all day and I just...I just want to talk to you..."

Drakken was staring at her, his eyes wide but searching. And suspicious.

Her heart was pounding. Even after that, he didn't trust her? What had she even said? It had all happened too fast...

He swallowed slowly and looked down at one of her hands. She let go of his shoulders, and he brought both his hands up to rub where her fingers had dug into his flesh.

He looked down with a frown. "I've spent the last two weeks trying to come up with the best way to kill you," he said. His low, flat tone sent chills racing across her skin. "I dream about it," he continued, glancing up at her bitterly.

She felt herself moving back before she realized she was doing it. "Actually, um....maybe you should sleep on this, and we can talk more in the morning," she said, quickly spinning away from him. A moment later her feet hit the floor. 

"Shego!"

She jumped over the moat and dashed out of his room and headed down the hall toward her own.

She struggled to catch her breath as she processed his response. She had opened up to him... And he told her he wanted her dead. Was that why he had built the new ray gun so fast? Was that the real purpose for the creepy cyborg bodyguard?

She reached her room and put in her door code...but the door didn't open. She tried again more slowly and got the same result. Frowning, she tried one of Drakken's generic codes. The door slid open, and when she stepped inside her eyes widened.

Three enormous crates were stacked in the center of the room, and but for those, the room was completely bare. She took a step forward, looking around. It wasn't even set up as a guest room. If not for the light fixtures it would look like nothing more than a small cave.

"You forgot your gloves."

Shego whirled with a gasp at the sound of his voice behind her. His arm was outstretched as he offered her the gloves. His face was blank.

She slowly took them, her eyes still wide with shock at the sight of her room.

"Where should I ship the crates?" he said.

Shego felt her lower lip trembling. She tried biting her cheeks, but for some reason that only made it worse. She knew she needed to say...something. He was still looking at her, his face expressionless.

She finally opened her mouth, but all that came out was a choked sob. She clutched her gloves to her chest as she sank down to a crouch and the tears began to flow.

She folded her arms across her knees and pressed her eyes against them as she cried. Days of suppressed emotion came out as she finally accepted defeat.

She had tried...everything. And he still didn't want her.

"The world...was... _mine_ ," she heard his voice above her, low and cold. "And you took it away."

She couldn't look up. He was right.

The only response she could manage was to cry, and the room around her vanished as she let her tears fall and stain her suit. Her hair surrounded her and cut off her sight, and her breaths came in short, painful gasps, over and over again.


	6. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suddenly Drakken was next to her, his hand covering hers and tightly gripping the handle of the ray gun. She was knocked off-balance as he yanked the gun away from her and she fell off the foot of the bed, hitting her head on the stone floor.
> 
> She sat up with a grimace, rubbing the back of her head where it had hit. And when she looked up she found herself looking down the barrel of the ray gun.
> 
> She recoiled in shock, scooting backward the few feet to the edge of the moat. When she realized she wasn't being fired on, she looked up past the gun to its owner. Drakken had both hands on the weapon and was pointing it calmly at her chest, his face void of expression. His eyes, while on her face, didn't meet hers.
> 
> Her breaths, which had been quick and shallow, began to slow as realization struck. She didn't dare move.
> 
> "You're... You're really...going to kill me. Aren't you, Dr. D."
> 
> He didn't even flinch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Well...we've never seen either Shego or Drakken quite like this. Is there any hope of them resolving their differences? Or have they burned their bridges. Maybe something will change in this chapter... Or, maybe it won't. Let's find out...

**Chapter 5 **

Shego didn't know how long she sobbed. But when the heaving of her chest finally calmed and she lifted her swollen red eyes, he was gone. Tears still streamed down her cheeks as she shakily crawled forward and leaned back against one of the crates that held all of her belongings.

He wanted her dead. She was sure now, the cyborg had been created to be her assassin. And the ray gun perhaps for if she caught him alone, knowing the way his mind worked. Why he hadn't taken advantage of her weakness in the last several minutes to kill her was a mystery.

She leaned forward to peer through her open bathroom door and out the window; it was night out and she could see stars.

She slowly got to her feet and pulled her gloves on. Her throat was tight and it hurt from crying, but she left the room and turned back down the hall toward his. She would at least say goodbye.

When she reached the room she found it unlocked, the motion sensor activating and opening the door at her approach. She peered inside and saw Drakken laying on his side on the bed, using a hand-held massage device on his neck. Startled, he dropped it on his head. 

If Shego hadn't been so upset, she'd have rolled her eyes at the irony. He curled into a ball, his face twisting in pain, and he slapped with one hand at the device until he got it turned off.

"What do you _want?_ " he snapped, holding his head where the massage device had hit him.

She opened her mouth, and realized she had forgotten everything she was going to say. He looked like himself again as he cringed in pain. It was a tiny moment of relief, and she used it to take a few breaths and gather herself again. She stayed back in the doorway.

"I...just wanted to say I'm sorry again. And..." He lifted his eyes to hers, and he still looked like himself. She couldn't take it. She dropped her gaze to the floor. "And I won't bother you anymore."

She turned to leave.

"Actually..." his voice stopped her, and she gave a sideways glance back. He sat up. "Your massage was...really helping. I was wondering if you could...um, do it again?"

Shego blinked in confusion. What was he doing? A short time ago he told her he'd been plotting her death, and now he wanted her touching him intimately? Was it a trap?

"And...maybe, um..." he continued, "we could talk."

Shego turned back fully and looked into his eyes. He still...looked like himself. She took a shaky breath.

"If...you're just going to tell me to leave again, then—"

"Let's...talk about it," he said, crossing his legs and shoving the portable massage device out of the way.

Shego sniffled and headed into the room, pulling her gloves off again. She sat behind him and after a moment began pressing her knuckles into the sides of his neck, where the muscles were most tense. Her heart was pounding. What if he got mad again? She felt him tense under the touch and then attempt to relax, a soundless gasp escaping his lips.

Shego took a few breaths to stop the tears that wanted to fall before speaking.

"What are you trying to do to me, Doc?" she finally asked, her voice coming out much weaker than she had hoped.

He sighed, and she rubbed her thumbs up and down his neck under his loose hair as she waited.

"I don't do betrayal, Shego. If I can't trust you, you can't work for me," he said plainly.

She studied the slump of his shoulders, and the rise of his chin.

"I said I'm sorry," she protested quietly.

"I was going to win!" he said emphatically. "Warmonga's technology would have had the world at my feet."

"And hers," Shego said with a frown.

"An invincible alien who worships you is a good asset for a world dictator," he pointed out. "But she was an idiot. I'd have gotten rid of her eventually."

Shego bit the inside of her cheek. He was right.

"Why did you stop me?" he asked impatiently.

She felt her already-racing heart pick up its pace. Apologizing had been hard enough. Telling him she enjoyed his company had been humiliating. Now he was making her admit to her own faults.

"I...I was jealous," she mumbled quietly.

"What was that?"

"I was jealous!" she spat out. "I couldn't believe you'd replaced me, just like that!"

"You left me in prison!" he snarled, turning to glare at her. The outburst silenced her, and she watched as the familiar sadness and steely resolve began settling into his eyes again.

 _'No, no, no...'_ her mind cried, and she pressed her fingers into the knots on his trapezius to distract him.

"Ow!" he reached up and grabbed her hands, turning all the way around to face her. He was crushing her fingers in his grip, but she didn't pull away.

"Look, this is just...a misunderstanding," she protested, surprised at how shaky her voice sounded.

He was holding her hands up between them, an angry frown across his features. But her calm seemed to have an impact and the fire began to go out of his eyes.

"Explain that," he said coldly.

She took a deep breath. "I thought you didn't care if I died. Just like...you thought I didn't care."

That got his attention. He didn't let go of her, but he loosened his grip to the point she could wiggle her fingers again.

"When I was out of it, after I got electrocuted, all I remember is you whining about getting defeated on the drive to the hospital. I had no idea you came back for me and tried to get me out of there...until you told me tonight."

He blinked, the anger slowly fading away and his face finally coming back to the usual confused naivete she was used to. It was the first real sign of hope she'd had in weeks. She sighed, a few tears escaping her eyes as he finally let go of her hands. 

"So...I was mad, that whole time we were in prison. I thought you didn't care that I almost died, so...it served you right to stay locked up a bit longer. And then when you replaced me with Warmonga, I was even more upset. It was like...I didn't even matter to you."

Drakken was listening intently, taking in each and every word. When she paused for breath he jumped in again.

"But after Warmonga threw me through the roof, you left."

She hugged herself tightly. "I wasn't paying attention... I was still mad, and I was distracted by Kim Possible, and...I just didn't notice. I'm sorry."

When she looked up, Drakken looked more like himself, albeit a bit uncertain.

"I was just...doing what I thought you'd done to me," she said, sitting back with a sigh and rubbing her hands where he'd squeezed them.

Several seconds passed in silence, and when she finally looked back at him he appeared thoughtful, if still a bit wary. She lifted her hands toward him with a pinching gesture, and he turned back around so she could resume the massage. This time she rubbed his entire neck, digging deep into his muscles.

"So..." he said quietly, "you betrayed me...because you thought I had betrayed you?"

She shrugged, though he couldn't see it. "Basically." She almost added that she hadn't really thought about it, but realized in time that that would make it worse.

A few moments passed in silence, and she drew slow, even breaths. Her fingers were starting to hurt due to the way he had squeezed them, so she switched to using the heels of her hands on his neck.

"But between us I am the more loyal, because I went back for you after the tower collapsed," he said. She heard the slight hint of gloating in his words.

_'Six-hour man hunt.'_

She felt a pang in her chest, but pushed it aside, focusing instead on trying to stay in his good graces.

"Yep. You're a big softy, Dr. D."

He turned around again and she pulled her hands back, letting them hover in the air between them. His eyes searched hers for...something.

"If you had known that I was drowning... Would you have come back for me?"

Shego blinked in surprise, the unspoken accusation clear in his eyes. She held her breath as her mind flew back to that day.

She had been so angry. And she had just saved Kim Possible, of all people. And Drakken had replaced her with an alien giant. Well, that's what she'd thought was going on... But if she had known what happened to him in that moment, as upset as she was... If she actually thought he was in trouble? That his life was in danger?

"Sure," she said, glancing away into the moat. Her voice was shaking again. She looked back at his guarded expression. "I wouldn't just...let you die."

She saw the briefest flicker of light pass through the accusation in his eyes. It was another small sign of hope that maybe he could be convinced that she wasn't his enemy. She thought hard for something else to say that he would believe.

He remained silent as he looked at her. His gaze was searching, but still distrusting. Her mind was racing... Should she try to apologize again? Should she tell him...she considers him a friend?

She took a breath and found it painfully shallow as she chose a line for continuance. "If I could take it back...I would have helped you, with her. To take over the world."

His eyes grew darker and his frown deeper. Apparently that had been the wrong track to take.

"I just didn't have my head on straight," she said in a rush, trying to cover her mistake.

"No..." he said, glaring. "You fail to kill a measly teenager... You'd rather take revenge than take over the world... One does wonder about your evil priorities."

She frowned and argued, despite herself. "I didn't– I wasn't trying to– ...Isn't it more evil to get revenge on a partner than to take over the world anyway? It's more self-serving."

"Partner?" he frowned at her quizzically.

"Partner...or...o-or friend," she said shakily, leaning away from him.

His eyes narrowed and his jaw slackened ever so slightly.

Her heart was racing. She bit her lip and leaned back a little more. Nothing was changing in his eyes... He didn't believe her.

Five seconds passed... Then ten.

"Friend?" he finally said. The word wasn't kind. It was accusing and bitter.

She swallowed and nodded slowly.

His expression didn't change. She raked her fingers through her hair anxiously and leaned further back.

"You would do this...to a friend?"

She found herself slowly scooting away from him. In doing so she bumped into the ray gun where it still sat at the foot of the bed. It started to slide off and she caught it instinctively.

Suddenly Drakken was next to her, his hand covering hers and tightly gripping the handle of the ray gun. She was knocked off-balance as he yanked the gun away from her and she fell off the foot of the bed, hitting her head on the stone floor.

She sat up with a grimace, rubbing the back of her head where it had hit. And when she looked up she found herself looking down the barrel of the ray gun.

She recoiled in shock, scooting backward the few feet to the edge of the moat. When she realized she wasn't being fired on, she looked up past the gun to its owner. Drakken had both hands on the weapon and was pointing it calmly at her chest, his face void of expression. His eyes, while on her face, didn't meet hers.

Her breaths, which had been quick and shallow, began to slow as realization struck. She didn't dare move.

"You're... You're really...going to kill me. Aren't you, Dr. D."

He didn't even flinch.

She sighed, her breaths relaxing even as her heart continued to pound. She dropped her gaze and turned until she was sitting up against the foot of the bed. She leaned her head against the edge of the mattress and closed her eyes.

She didn't really think she deserved it, all things considered. But, he'd clearly been working toward that end. If she didn't leave, she was signing her own death warrant. But if she left...where would she go?

The lair... Drakken...was home.

She sniffled, and suddenly realized her eyes had grown moist. She hadn't thought she had any more tears left to cry.

She wondered just when her often-silly, always-mad boss had become her friend and home. And if he did mean so much to her, why had she so easily done all the things he had accused her of? She hadn't been lying about simply not realizing his life was in danger. And she had been so focused on her jealousy of the alien she didn't fully realize she was taking away his victory.

She was just...so intent on what _she_ wanted, villainess that she was. And she took for granted the person she hadn't realized...meant the world to her. And now it was too late to take it all back.

She sighed heavily, her eyes remaining closed. There was a certain peace knowing it was all over. She had no answer to where she would go, but...at least she wouldn't be stuck wondering if he might change his mind and trust her again. It was clear now he wouldn't.

Her thoughts broke as she realized the only sounds in the room were her tears and the ripple of the moat. She opened her eyes, blinking rapidly to clear some of the tears, and turned to look up at him.

He had lowered the ray gun to rest on his knee. On his face, confusion and sadness showed through the anger. She felt a pang in her chest. Maybe he...

She bit her lip. No. If she tried to stay, he would kill her. No matter how she tried to persuade him, it just got worse each time she tried. He wasn't going to hear her.

"I'll...rent a storage space and give you the address." She was surprised at how weak her voice was. "You can ship the crates there. And, send me the bill."

She turned and pushed herself up slowly, using the mattress for support. She glanced at him and found he was watching her with the same confused expression. But casting her eyes lower, she saw his fingers twitching on the handle of the ray gun. Her heart leapt to her throat.

She reached across the bed and picked up her gloves. She wiped the tears from her cheeks before putting them on. Now that she was actually going to leave, for good...she found the act painful to accomplish.

She turned toward the door, but his voice stopped her.

"Where should I send the bill?"

She didn't turn around. "Just to my post office box. I don't have anywhere else." The last was said almost in a whisper, to herself. She kept walking.

When she entered the hallway, she let out a gasp. The cyborg was standing at the opposite end, its white eyes glowing. She realized that Drakken must have some sort of remote access that she hadn't noticed. Maybe he'd summoned it while she'd been crying.

She turned and walked the other direction down the hall, slowly. She'd have to take the long way out to avoid the cyborg. Easily worth it. She glanced back after several steps and found it was approaching at a slightly faster pace than she was taking. She swallowed nervously, but maintained her slower gait. She didn't want to do anything to alert it.

When she rounded the corner at the far end of the hall, she began running on her toes as quietly as possible toward the exit, her heart racing. There had been no apparent way to fight that thing, and she didn't want to try again.

She rounded another corner into the living area and skidded to a stop with a strangled cry. The cyborg was there. It must have turned around and gone the short way. How had it known?

She released the breath she'd been holding when suddenly Drakken stepped around the cyborg to face her. Sure enough, he held a remote control.

"Why the post office?" he asked, continuing their conversation, as if there wasn't an eight-foot herald of death standing between them.

Shego resumed her walk to the exit, very slowly. "I don't have anywhere else..." she said distractedly. "This was..." She paused and swept her arm around in a gesture at the large room where they'd spent so much time watching TV and making snarky cracks at each other. "...This was my home."

She didn't stop to look at his face, her eyes glued to the cyborg. She just had to get to the door, and to her hover-board... Unless the thing had rockets and could fly. But since she was leaving, he wouldn't send it after her, would he? He'd been trying to get her to leave for over a week. Killing her was just...the backup plan. She hoped.

When she finally reached the door and stepped through, it was like walking into a new dimension. Everything suddenly felt lighter and freer on the balcony in the starlit sky. She relished in a few deep breaths before running toward her hover-board.

"Shego."

She bit the inside of her cheek and turned back. He was walking toward her with that look of confusion. And...something else? She waited until he was stopped in front of her, but kept her toe on the hover-board's controls. She noticed with relief that he'd left the ray gun behind.

"Did you really...think we were friends?"

She swallowed thickly and nodded.

He shook his head with that same look of confusion and conflict. And pain. "Then...why?"

Another tear slid down her cheek, against her will. "I-I told you. I thought...you didn't care about me. I didn't know you'd tried to save me, after the tower."

Something in his eyes told her he wasn't convinced, and she kept going. "We have the exact same problem. Don't you see it? You're doing to me now, what I did...when I left you locked up. You betrayed me...is what I thought... So I got back at you."

A small light came to his eyes as he looked at her a bit sideways, his chin tucked thoughtfully.

"Except, I never plotted your death," she said, looking at the cyborg in the doorway behind him.

He looked the briefest bit guilty, and her heart leapt. Was he actually...? No, she couldn't hope he would change his mind. She could say the wrong thing and he would snap again. She had to go.

She tapped the control and started up the hover-board. His hand on her arm startled her so much that she nearly took off. But instead she turned back to face him again.

"Would you...really have saved me? You wouldn't have let me drown?"

His eyes looked...almost normal. It was the closest they'd been since she'd come back.

She thought back not to the day when Warmonga had come, but to a week ago when she'd first come to the lair looking for him. She thought of the way he'd held his neck and writhed in pain so bad, he would cry from the intensity of it. And how he was so desperate for relief he would let her touch him and try to massage away the injury, trusting her despite the fact that he clearly hated her.

She tried to imagine him in that much pain struggling in the water. Her heart pounded in fear.

"No," she shook her head and looked into his confused and now-desperate eyes. "I would have saved you."

She only had a split second to see the tiny smile that appeared on his face before she had the wind knocked out of her as he wrapped her into a tight hug. She coughed a few times, struggling for breath as her hands, trapped against his chest, grasped uselessly at his shirt. Why did he always have to be so dramatic...

Her eyes opened wide as it suddenly hit her—was he forgiving her?

Her heart leapt again when she heard a tiny hum of happiness leave his lips, and she slowly relaxed into his firm embrace. She exhaled quickly in relief and let her cheek drop against his. Maybe this crisis was finally coming to a close.

Her relaxation seemed to bring him back to the present, and he slowly released her and stepped back to put space between them. His expression was still a bit cautious, but his eyes smiled at her.

She stayed on the hover-board. She looked past him at the cyborg, and then at the remote control in his hand.

"Drakken... Were you really going to kill me?"

He looked startled. She took it as a good sign. But then that distrustful darkness clouded his face again as he looked back over his shoulder at his monstrous creation.

He looked back and blinked a few times, his brow rising and then falling as he seemed to try to put words together. "I...I'm not sure," he finally said.

Her eyes widened.

"Sometimes...evil is reckless," he said with a light shrug.

She grimaced. "Got that right."

He looked up at where she now floated a foot above the ground on the hover-board. His eyes had returned to their usual uncertainty when they had serious conversations.

"Shego...you don't have to go. You can stay."

She felt a loosening in her chest, and a lightness. She took a deep breath...and then crossed her arms and shook her head. "No."

His brow rose. "No?"

She pointed at the cyborg. "Not as long as that thing's here."

He looked back at the bot and then to her. He seemed to be trying to decide between them.

"You...you built that to kill me," she continued, her voice shaking. "As long as it's here, I won't be."

Drakken frowned, his expression a mixture of pouty and perturbed.

"Pistis, come here."

The bot started forward at its slow, measured gait. Shego floated back on the hover-board until she was a good fifteen feet off of the edge of the cliff. She knew it wouldn't do any good if the bot had rockets, but...she supposed she would find out now.

The cyborg stopped apparently on instinct at the edge of the cliff, its white eyes staring out over the sea. Drakken pushed a button on the remote, and Shego watched in surprise as the eyes dimmed and went out. Drakken stared down at the remote, frowning in dismay. And then with a heave he threw it out into the open air beyond the edge of the cliff.

"Be my guest," he said with a frown, gesturing toward the cyborg.

Shego started back toward the cliff...and then she stopped.

"No. You do it."

Drakken looked annoyed. A wind suddenly rushed past the cliff, blowing his loose hair and causing him to grip his bare arms against the cold. Shego adjusted the hover-board for the mild turbulence and crossed her arms as she waited.

Drakken looked up at her, and then at the cyborg. Shego found herself becoming angry that it was even a choice, but still afraid that he would suddenly snap and sic the thing on her.

Finally, with a growl of frustration Drakken stepped forward and began shoving at the cyborg's waist until he knocked it off balance and over the edge. Shego watched from the hover-board as it bounced along the cliff face until it finally hit the waters below and disappeared.

A weight suddenly lifted from her chest. She found herself smiling as she looked back at Drakken, who was biting his lip and leaning over the side of the cliff forlornly.

"It was perfect!" he whined as Shego brought the board back down to the cliff and landed, turning it off.

"But I'm better than she was," she said with a smirk as she approached him.

He seemed startled by her presence somehow, stumbling back from the cliff's edge when she stopped next to him. He blinked at her several times, the look in his eyes suddenly nervous.

For a moment she was confused. But then in a flash she remembered his words from over a week ago.

 _"You see, Shego? Warmonga_ is _better than you!"_

It had been that very statement that set her off, causing her to help Kim Possible and effectively take away Drakken's victory. Even if that hadn't been her intention.

She held her breath as she realized he was remembering the exact same thing, even though her statement in the present had been about the cyborg. He looked sad, and mildly annoyed. His eyes were searching hers, and hers his.

"Yes..." he finally said, drawing out the word slowly. "I've always thought...you were the best."

Her throat tightened. He still looked upset, but...he also looked like he was telling the truth. She felt tears pricking the corners of her eyes and she looked down, hugging herself.

"Doc... If you're just going to take it back in a few minutes... Then I should go."

He closed the distance between them and she glanced up. He looked genuinely regretful. "No..." he shook his head. "I mean it. I always thought..." he looked down sadly, "that with you, I would be unstoppable."

Shego straightened up a bit. He gave her that much credit? If so, it added to why her apparent betrayal upset him so much.

He turned and headed back into the lair. He paused in the doorway and looked back to where she still stood at the cliff's edge. She took a shaky breath and hurried after him.

"So... I can come back?" she asked after a moment.

He glanced away. "Do you...really think I'll take over the world someday?"

She recalled her words from earlier and smirked. "With me as your side-kick, it's a guarantee."

A faint smile appeared on his lips as he continued forward, and she walked just behind his right shoulder. But as she watched him, there was still a sadness in his eyes.


	7. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shego thought hard and tried to remember the night, but all she remembered was the tower and Drakken ranting in the back of a police van.
> 
> "I don't remember any of that."
> 
> "I knew...something was really wrong, so I... I gave us up."
> 
> Shego closed her eyes as she processed that. She'd apparently been so badly off—which articles she'd read had confirmed—that he'd been willing to give up their freedom.
> 
> "You could have kept going," she heard herself say.
> 
> His fingers left her temples and she turned her chair around to face him. His eyes were downcast and sad, his lips curled into a frown.
> 
> "No," he shook his head lightly, "I couldn't."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Thanks again to all reviewers! I love hearing everyone's comments, please keep them coming!!!
> 
> Like most of the chapters, this one picks up directly from where the last one left off. Let's see if the apparent calm shall last...

**Chapter 6 **

Shego sighed and looked down at the floor as they walked through the lair. Somehow...they had definitely become friends. She wondered when that had happened, and how she had allowed it... But really those were questions for another time. The present moment called for a test, she thought, as her gaze was drawn again to the tiny tattoos of tear drops next to his eye.

"Why did you want to kill me?"

He stopped short, and she took an instinctive step back and held her breath. She could make it back out the door before he caught her... She looked at his face and saw the anger, and pain...but not the rage. It was an improvement?

He turned back around and faced her, looking her dead in the eye. "It's what traitors deserve," he said pointedly, and then turned and continued walking.

She hurried to his side, biting her lip. She wasn't sure what to say. They'd been over the whole thing...more than once. Was he still thinking of her that way? She had already apologized so many times that she wasn't sure the words would hold weight if she did so again.

"And I needed a distraction," he continued suddenly.

Her brow furrowed. "What?"

He glanced back at her over his shoulder, and then shook his head. His hand went to his neck and rubbed under his loose hair.

"I was laying on the beach in the surf for hours. I couldn't move. I was sure my neck was broken and...it would only be a matter of time before I died of exposure, or some wild animal got me. I could hardly breathe."

Her throat tightened again. His face was twisted into a bitter frown, his eyes tightly closed as he recalled the event.

"All I could think about...when I wasn't thinking about my death...was that you had done it to me. And everything else you had done before. And wondering why..."

He had walked back into his bedroom, and she followed a few steps behind him this time. She felt sick as she watched him sit heavily on the edge of the bed, continuing to rub his neck. He still looked angry, but mostly he looked sad.

She knew anything she said would be pushing her luck, but she felt she had to say something to make up for the recent past. She took a breath and crouched down in front of him on one knee, looking up into his downcast eyes.

"Drakken, I still want to help you take over the world. And...I won't let anyone hurt you again. If you let me come back. I promise."

The sadness in his eyes slowly melted away into a shy, though cautious smile. She sighed in relief and found tears filling her sore eyes again. She didn't bother dabbing at them this time.

He suddenly turned around and flopped on his stomach, pulling his t-shirt off awkwardly after he was down. Shego blinked as he settled onto the bed, the implication clear, but then she shrugged. Apparently this was a thing they did now. It was her own fault.

"So your back hurts too?" she asked, tossing her gloves next to the ray gun and resuming the massage.

"Mm," he replied, "low back. It was frozen after...after—"

"I get it," she said quickly. "Did you ever go to the doctor?"

Her heart was still racing, and a chill suddenly swept down her body. A week of mental and emotional torment, and...it was over and done, just like that?

"No..." he said into his pillow. "Didn't want to risk getting caught."

She felt along his spine and pressed her fingers deep into his low back, searching for anything that seemed amiss. She was familiar enough with anatomy after the dozens of massages she had had. He flinched when she touched a particularly tender spot. She hesitated a moment, and then pressed lower toward his tailbone.

He tensed and turned his head quickly toward her, resulting in a grimace of pain as he grabbed his neck with one hand.

"Yeah... If you lay on the ground I can walk on your back. I think that will help."

"The ground? Walk on my...?" He looked every bit himself as he looked at her in confusion and with just a hint of fear.

"Toss your blanket down there," she said, getting up and moving out of the way.

Drakken stood up, and with his back to her he quickly pulled his shirt back on before pushing his bedspread down to the stone floor. Shego realized he was avoiding facing her or making eye-contact for more than a moment.

"So...lay down and relax," she said, suddenly feeling nervous again.

He did so silently, and she knelt down to check his tailbone one more time.

"I thought...you were going to walk on my back?" he said, glancing at her nervously.

"I told you to relax," she said, noting he was tense from head to toe. "If you're tense I might actually hurt you."

She ran her hands up and down his back until she felt him start to relax.

"Okay... Take deep breaths, and seriously...relax," she directed firmly.

His response was a deep inhale, and she felt him start to obey. She realized...it must be a good sign, if he was willing to trust her to touch him like that. And a few breaths later, she felt he was relaxed enough.

She stood up—and then realized she needed to take her boots off. She sat back down.

"What are you doing?" he asked nervously, turning his face toward her.

"Taking my boots off," she said plainly. She watched his shoulders tense again as he eyed her worriedly. "Just relax."

It was another minute before he'd untensed again, and this time when she stood she was able to place one of her feet over the back of his pelvis. The moment she put her weight on him, she felt and heard something in his back give way.

"Ow!" he exclaimed.

She stepped up with her other foot over his shoulder blades.

"That help?"

"...Yes," he admitted.

She got to work moving her feet across his low and mid-back, feeling things move and shift with nearly every step. She was only slightly nervous not to have something to hold on to for balance; she certainly didn't weigh enough to hurt him. She was more nervous that he might tense up.

"Okay, so...just stay relaxed," she instructed as she stepped lower over his rear. Like she expected, he began to react and she immediately stepped down.

"What are you—?"

"You have bones in there that need adjusting," she interrupted impatiently, hands on her hips.

He looked at her anxiously. But after a moment he sighed and put his head back down.

"Is it helping?" she asked.

"Yes..." he admitted again, and she watched him relax further. She stepped up onto his back again.

She moved slowly, the care required for what she was doing a good distraction from her feelings. The only thought she continued to allow herself was that if he was trusting her with this, surely he had forgiven her and things could go back to normal soon.

He continued to relax under her ministrations, and his calm helped calm her nerves as well. She felt as various parts of his back that were tense finally released, and bones that needed to shift were moved back into place. The biggest problem though was still his neck, based on what he had described.

After about ten minutes she stepped down and sat on the edge of his bed, pulling her boots back on.

"I can do more, if you lay up here again," she said. She was surprised to find her voice shaking.

He wordlessly climbed up and lay on the bed, dragging the blankets back up with him. He had a faraway look in his eyes. She wondered what he was thinking about.

He pulled his thin t-shirt off again, and she noted the light sweat stains that it had acquired when she walked on his back. She wondered how much of his nerves from the experience were because of the risk involved, and how much were because it was _her_ providing the treatment.

She went back to massaging his neck, and he let out a tiny sigh. Her hands were tired and definitely hurting now, but she would keep going as long as she could. If it helped things get back to normal between them, then it would be worth a little pain.

As she continued and neither of them seemed to have anything worth saying, she studied his tattoos and recalled his explanations for all of them. The heart with 'mother' tattooed in it on his bicep looked absolutely ridiculous. The concept and cliche were bad enough, but on his blue skin the effect was comical and reminded her of overly made-up Vegas dancers.

The phrase he'd had put on his back, while he was falling-down drunk when he'd gotten it as he'd explained, just made him look like a teen who wanted to give off a tough persona and failed. The spiderweb on his elbow actually _did_ make him look edgy, and even a little attractive if she didn't think about the fact it was Drakken who had it. But the cliche again only made the effect go so far.

The three large tattoos would be hidden from view though, in his usual attire. She wondered if that had gone into his decision to get them. Because they certainly didn't do anything for the mad scientist vibe. Nor did the tiny tear drops, which would always be visible on his face. But those at least spoke of a real threat. She would have to coach him on not telling anyone that the "murder" that had earned him the first one was really self-defense. Otherwise the threat-aspect went away.

She remembered then that he had a fifth tattoo. When she'd asked about it a week ago, he'd gotten angry. She wondered why. Maybe it was below the belt, somewhere he wouldn't want her to see... Though knowing him, it wasn't likely he'd let a tattoo artist have that much intimate access to him.

"So..." she said into the silence, and he opened his eyes and glanced up at her. "Are we okay?"

He grabbed his t-shirt, and rolling away from her he quickly slipped into it before sitting up. She realized then exactly where the fifth tattoo was.

He turned around to face her. His eyes were cautious, sad...and hopeful. After a moment he nodded slowly.

She had hoped for a more affirmative response, but...it was better than anything she'd gotten so far.

"We... We can talk more in the morning," he said.

She glanced over at his clock and saw the late hour, and her brow rose. It had been only sunset when she arrived. She must have spent a long time crying.

"Yeah... I'll...let you get some sleep," she said, rising to leave.

She crossed to the door and paused in the frame, turning to look back at him. He was still sitting up and watching her with the same uncertainty.

She opened her mouth to make a smart remark...and let it die on her breath. It was far, far, _far_ too soon to tease him about his dreams of killing her.

"Good night," she said instead.

"...Good night," he echoed after a moment.

After she left she shook her head at herself as she headed to her room. The smart remarks were great in a fight against Kim Possible, or for mocking other villains. And they were good when she and Drakken were in right standing with each other. But at the moment...she'd have to shelve her natural tendencies.

She groaned. Being serious and honest was _so_ not her.

When she reached her room and the door didn't open, she suddenly remembered what was inside. She entered the generic code and stepped in, a lump in her throat as she looked at the large crates again. She didn't even know which one her bed was in.

Sudden exhaustion swept her from head to toe, and she stretched her entire frame as she yawned deeply. She absolutely wasn't unpacking tonight.

Without another option, she turned toward the living area and the couch. At least with the repairs being complete, she could turn the heat up. And she supposed if worse came to worse, she could borrow a blanket from the henchmen.

Arriving in the darkened room, she didn't bother to turn the lights on as she lay down on the red sofa and turned her face into the cushions at the back. She kept one pillow for her head and dropped the others atop her as makeshift blankets. It was pathetic...but she was too tired, she realized, to try to get real blankets.

She wondered again what Drakken's fifth tattoo was, that he was hiding from her on his chest. Maybe she could sneak into his room in the morning and see it...

That was her second to last thought before falling asleep. The last was wondering if he had really forgiven her, and if not would he try to kill her in her sleep as he'd tried with his cellmate.

* * *

"Shego."

She opened her eyes into the back of the sofa and remembered where she was, and everything about the previous day. Her eyes hurt, and her whole body felt heavy.

She rolled over quickly to meet the sound of his voice, and her head pounded from the action. She sat up slowly with a grimace, rubbing her temples and closing her eyes tightly in pain.

But then it hit her—what if he wasn't standing there as a friend?

She fell back against the sofa and blinked painfully up at him in the light, her hands flaring in front of her defensively.

When her eyes came into focus she saw him staring down at her in surprised confusion, dressed to the nines in his lab coat, and looking nothing at all like the man who had wanted to kill her the day before.

"Um. Everything...all right?" he asked, apparently unfazed by her reaction.

She let the glow die out as she rubbed her temples again, blinking repeatedly against the pain the bright fluorescent lights brought to her head.

"Headache..." she said, her voice coming out in a croak. It was painfully obvious that her body hadn't recovered from the previous day's emotional toll.

"Oh... I'm...sorry I didn't think about your room. The henchmen are unpacking your things."

She stared up at him. He looked every bit himself. And he was treating her...like things were back to normal?

"Okay," she said after a moment. "Thanks."

He continued staring down at her, as if waiting for something...or perhaps he was thinking of something to say? She couldn't tell.

She let herself fall sideways back onto the sofa, closing her eyes again as she rubbed her temples. The headache was spreading to behind her eyes, and her whole head felt swollen. She grimaced again as she felt the pressure in the blood vessels under her fingertips.

She sensed his eyes on her, and when she peered up at him again he was biting his lip and looked nervous.

"What?" she said, her eyes narrowing.

"...Nothing," he said, turning to walk away. He stopped suddenly and glanced back. "Um...you can have the day off."

Her eyes widened into an astonished glare, but he had scurried away before she could properly give him the look. She rolled over and pressed her face into the sofa again and dropped a pillow on her head to block out the light.

"It can't get any weirder..."

* * *

When Shego woke up again, her head still hurt. But it hurt less than when Drakken had woken her. She sat up and looked around to find the living area deserted, which was normal for an afternoon. The work days were usually spent in the lab or out on an active scheme.

She stood and stretched and headed to her room. If it was finished, she really needed a shower. And some more sleep...

A few minutes later, she was relieved to find her room back to its rights and her bathroom clean and functioning. Another fifteen minutes found her under a stream of warm water, which she was gradually turning down to be cooler. Her temples were still hot and swollen, and she was hoping the cooler water might help.

As she slowly washed and conditioned her hair, she tried to process the previous day. The one thought she couldn't get out of her head was that Drakken had wanted to kill her, so much so that he had planned it out and invented new weapons to do so. Even though he had appeared to forgive her, it still gave her chills to think about it. Was it possible for a person to change their mind so suddenly when they had worked so hard toward an end?

That worry aside, a new thought had made itself present that morning as she tried to sleep off the headache. It was his description of what had happened to him after she had left over a week ago... When the alien had thrown him through the roof, and she'd left without checking on him.

He had only told her briefly about that day. And she'd seen the immense pain he was in a week later when she'd come back. Now she wondered about the time in between... How he had made it back to the lair alive, how he had set in motion the unbelievably fast and complete repairs, and how he had built a cyborg to kill her in such a short amount of time.

She threw handfuls of the cooler water over her face in an attempt to soothe her temples, as a new bone-chilling thought entered her mind.

What if...he hadn't survived?

What if his neck really had been broken, and he'd had no way to save himself? She'd have come back and found a rotting corpse, probably half-eaten by wild animals... Or she might have found nothing at all. She could have gone for days...weeks...searching for him, and never found the answer.  
  
She felt a clenching pain around her heart. She could have lost him forever... And it would have been her fault.

She crouched down in the shower and let the cool spray hit her back. When had she started to care so much?

She wanted to be mad at herself for caring, but...she was too shaken by what had happened, and by what _could_ have happened, to allow that thought any presence. Side-kick or not...somehow, he was important to her now. It mattered what happened to him. And she really did want to see him take over the world.

Her resolve to protect him strengthened even as the pain in her heart grew. There had to be something she could do to make it up to him...

She got out of the shower and proceeded to dry off. He had wanted her to kill Kim Possible, as retribution...and she had failed.

She remembered suddenly the article Kim had emailed her about the night the Li'l Diablo plot was ruined. The night that Drakken had apparently saved her, that he considered to be the mark of his loyalty to her. Loyalty she had then thrown back in his face.

She wrapped her hair in a towel and secured her robe around her waist as she re-entered her bedroom and looked for her laptop. The crates were gone, so it must have been unpacked somewhere...

A knock at the door distracted her, and she pulled her robe more tightly around her as she moved to answer it.

When the door slid open, it revealed a nervous Drakken. He appeared startled at her appearance, and took a step back.

"...Hi," she said, rubbing her aching temples.

"Ah...you...forgot your gloves again," he said, holding them out at arm's length.

She had realized earlier that she'd left them in his room the night prior, but hadn't thought much about it. She took them, and he took another step back.

"You okay, Doc?" she asked.

He rubbed his neck. "...Yes. Fine."

He turned and strode down the hall, leaving her staring after him in confusion. She shook her head and went back into the room, tossing her gloves onto her discarded suit. Bizarre, nervous behavior was better than murderous. She would try to figure it out later, after she'd learned more about the night the tower fell on her.

Finding her laptop plugged in under a pile of things on her desk, she booted it up and did a quick web search for articles about that night. They were in abundance of course, since Drakken had nearly succeeded in taking over the world. Most of the articles talked about the theft of Nakasumi's designs and the Hephaestus Project from Dr. Possible. And of course, they all mentioned Kim as the one who had stopped Drakken. Despite the teen's help in her current situation, she frowned each time she read the name.

It took some more specific searching, but she finally found articles specifically about her and Drakken's arrest. More importantly, she found one that talked about her four days in the hospital with critical injuries. Her headache grew as she read about the initial expectation that she wouldn't survive, and then the surprise when she turned a corner and made a quick recovery.

Shego remembered the hospital. But she didn't remember any of those details. All she knew was that she was there, she was in pain, and she'd hoped to escape when she was able rather than go to prison.

She sat back in her chair and buried her face in her hands. The interview with the arresting officers had said it was a six-hour search for them in a forest on someone's two hundred-acre farm. So she had essentially been dying, and Drakken had still tried to protect her... She wondered if he knew how badly-off she had been.

She changed into a clean suit and let her damp hair hang behind her as she left the room in search of him. She needed to find out more about that night, from the only person who was there.

Her initial starting point was the lab, but he wasn't there—only henchmen who watched her uncertainly. She tried his room next, but found that empty as well. Maybe he had gone out?

She went next to the kitchen, realizing she was famished, and that's where she found him making lunch.

"Oh! Shego," he said, looking nervous again as soon as she appeared.

"Whatcha doing?" she asked, ignoring his unease.

He blinked. "Um. M-making a sandwich."

"There enough for two?" she said, sitting at one of the bar stools and facing him.

He looked down at the chicken salad and then back to her. He nodded.

"Would you mind making me one?" she asked, softening her tone. Just because he was acting close to normal on the surface didn't necessarily mean she ought to act as if nothing had happened.

The strange nervousness began to fade from his eyes as he set about the task. "No, I don't mind..."

She leaned on her elbows and rubbed her temples gently as he put together two plates of chicken-salad sandwiches and a side of fruit salad.

"Chips?" he asked, getting a large bag out of the cupboard.

"Sure," she said.

He poured chips onto each of the plates and then got two glasses from the cupboard. His he filled with milk, and hers with water.

"Too bad it's so late," she said as she spun around on the stool and went to sit at the table instead. "That would make a nice picnic."

His brow rose and he looked at her questioningly as he brought their plates and sat across from her.

She shrugged. "It would."

"I...didn't know you liked picnics."

"Sometimes I do," she said.

Once they began eating, the conversation died. The minutes passed with them looking between their food and each other, uncertainty and questions in each of their eyes. As hungry as Shego was, and as delicious as his food was, she was glad when they both finished several minutes later so she could ask him the questions that had been building up in the last hour she'd been awake.

"Doc..." she said, after pushing her empty plate away.

"Shego—" he said at the same time, but stopped short as she spoke. He looked nervous again.

She frowned. "What's wrong?"

He glanced away. "What do you mean?"

"I mean...you suddenly seem really nervous around me. Ordinarily I'd think...you had done something you thought I'd be mad about, but—wait, did you?"

He blinked and shook his head.

"Yeah... So...what's wrong?"

"Nothing, really. It's just...well, I... Do you...? Well, yesterday..."

"Spit it out, Doc."

"Do you want a massage?" he blurted out.

Her eyes widened. "Huh?" That was the last thing she had expected.

He was clasping and unclasping his hands nervously in front of him. "Well...y-your head hurts."

She stared at him.

"And...after yesterday, you...you helped me so much. I haven't slept that well since...before prison. And when I saw the way you woke up this morning—"

"Is that why you've been jumpy all day? Because you wanted to return the favor?"

"Well, I..." He nodded.

"...Do you know how?"

He nodded again.

Shego stood up and moved her chair around the table and set it down next to him, turning it so her back was to him.

"Be my guest. Nothing is helping."

She heard him scoot his chair closer to her and a moment later felt his gloved fingertips against her temples. The leather was cool, and his touch light. She closed her eyes and hoped it would help.

"Dr. D.?" she said after a moment, remembering why she had come looking for him in the first place.

"Hm?"

She steeled herself. "Can you tell me...what really happened the night we were arrested?"

She heard him take a sharp breath, and his fingers on her temples stilled for a long moment. She started to tense...and then forced herself to relax. If he got mad again... It would prove his forgiveness wasn't real. But she would give him the benefit of the doubt. With caution.

"I already did," he said. She heard the tension in his voice.

She took a slow, measured breath. She had a couple of choices, and she went with the more dangerous one. She was making herself vulnerable to him, by sitting with her back to him and letting him touch her the way he was. It was a sign of trust, if only he could see it. And if he could see that she trusted him again...maybe, he would trust her?

"I know. But I want the details. I tried looking for articles about it on the web, but they don't talk about...how you got us out of there."

His fingers continued their slow circles on her temples.

"I told you everything that matters," he said after a moment.

"You said you got us out in the hover-car, but we crashed. How far did we get?"

She heard him take a breath. "Not far. Maybe...ten minutes out of the city, tops."

"And then you carried me?"

He sighed. "Yes."

She felt his fingers move in slightly larger circles, going into her hairline.

"I'm being honest here, Doc... I'm impressed. You've never struck me as the endurance-sport, type."

"I'm not," he answered. There was a hint of impatience to his tone.

"So...what happened?" she asked, softening her own.

He sighed again. "We tried to escape. They set dogs after us, and...I think the rain helped us get ahead."

"It was raining?" she asked. Even as she said it, she remembered the rain coming and going all that evening before Kim Possible had arrived.

"And cold," he answered.

She could tell he wasn't enjoying telling her about it. But the headline from that first article still compelled her.

"I read in an article...that it was six hours before they caught up to us."

"I'm not sure. I just know it was dawn when they arrested us."

"How did they catch us?"

For a moment, Drakken's fingers stilled on her temples. But a moment later the gentle pressure resumed.

"I couldn't go on anymore... I...I dropped you," he admitted.

"Oh..."

"And then you woke up. Right when the dogs came. You tried to protect us, but...you couldn't even hit them at close range."

Shego thought hard and tried to remember the night, but all she remembered was the tower and Drakken ranting in the back of a police van.

"I don't remember any of that."

"I knew...something was really wrong, so I... I gave us up."

Shego closed her eyes as she processed that. She'd apparently been so badly off—which articles she'd read had confirmed—that he'd been willing to give up their freedom.

"You could have kept going," she heard herself say.

His fingers left her temples and she turned her chair around to face him. His eyes were downcast and sad, his lips curled into a frown.

"No," he shook his head lightly, "I couldn't."

She bit the inside of her cheek. "Villains don't exactly...stick around to save other villains."

He glanced up at her. "I needed to make sure you would be okay," he said, his expression growing more bitter with each word.

He pushed himself up out of the chair and stepped around her. She was on her feet in an instant and grabbed his arm to stop him. He turned back to her.

"Dr. D.—" she began, but then stopped at the look of challenge in his eyes.

She knew...there was nothing she could say to make the situation better. And it would always be between them now, that she'd left and he hadn't. But...she had to do something.

Taking a page out of his book, she impulsively threw her arms around him and held him in a tight hug. He didn't return it...but he didn't tense up either.

"I know I don't deserve a second chance," she said quietly, "but...I want one. Please."

A few moments passed, and then she felt his hands lightly rest on her shoulders. They stayed for a moment, and then he gently pushed her away from him. A lump formed in her throat as she stepped back to look at him. One of his hands moved to rub his neck as he looked at her again with that bitter sadness.

"That's why you're here," he said. He stepped further back to lean against the counter and brought his other hand to his neck.

She saw the wince of pain on his face, and her own hand went instinctively to her temple that was still swollen.

"Head...still hurting?" he said after a moment.

"Yes. But it's a little better. So...uhm, thanks."

His expression lightened slightly.

"What about your neck?"

His brow rose in acknowledgment. "It's much better than it was before... I didn't take any painkillers this morning," he said. "I still might need some."

 _'Painkillers...'_ She realized that was how he'd been getting by.

"Doc...you have to go to a hospital. Or at least a chiropractor."

He frowned. "It's too risky."

"No... What's too risky is not doing anything. It's just like...when you gave us up to the authorities because you knew something was wrong with me. I _did_ find news articles about that. Did they tell you I wasn't expected to survive?"

His eyes widened.

"And...so...now it's my turn." She grabbed his arm and started pushing him toward the door. "We are getting you some help, right now."

"No!" he said, pulling away from her. But the sudden act resulted in a hiss of pain as both of his hands went to his neck.

"How many painkillers have you been taking?" she asked, hands on her hips.

His eyes darted away. "Um..."

She grabbed his arm again. "That's what I thought. It's your _neck_ , Doc. It's important. We're going and that's all there is to it."

"No, no. Shego!"

His protests went ignored, and Shego realized with relief that he was allowing her to push him into the hover-car. If he really didn't want to go, he wouldn't. He had made perfectly clear what he was capable of.

A brief argument ended with him driving as she searched for the best place. Another argument about what the best place would be ended in a compromise; they would find someplace reputable, but still out of the way. As he had pointed out repeatedly, it wouldn't do to have the police interrupting.


	8. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You called the police?" Shego snarled.
> 
> "My receptionist did... I'm sorry, I would have—"
> 
> "Rrgh, I don't care! You're treating him. Now. Police or no police. And if you do anything to make him worse, then you'll be needing more than traction!"
> 
> Shego's threat caused both the doctor's and Drakken's eyes to widen. Drakken gazed at Shego curiously as the chiropractor swallowed nervously and started pulling X-ray images out of a folder.
> 
> "I actually can't. If you look here," the doctor held the image in front of a light box, "your neck is fractured."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: And now we get out of the lair... What will these variables bring to the poor villains we love?
> 
> To those who have commented, thank you!!! Comments are like oxygen, folks, please leave them!

**Chapter 7 **

When they arrived at the selected chiropractor's office, Shego took charge by flaring her hands immediately upon disembarking the hover-car. Ultimately though, a grumbling Drakken suggested they just go in and try to go about it the normal way. Hopefully there would be less possibility of arrest that way.

The receptionist and the other patrons of the medical office gave them all curious and wary stares, but before long Drakken was filling out paperwork with a frown while Shego kept a careful watch in the waiting room. It didn't appear too busy, so hopefully Drakken could be seen soon.

Shego felt more confident in the situation in the small building filled with people, despite how atypical it was for them. To be keeping watch and filling the role of 'bodyguard' while Drakken engaged in some task was how they had started out together over three years ago, and it was a return to normalcy that she desperately needed. Perhaps the fact that they _could_ still do normal things was a good sign.

Half an hour later, Shego followed Drakken into a small exam room with a chiropractic adjustment table that was very familiar to her; she'd had plenty of adjustments in her time. Drakken looked nervous and irritated as they waited for the doctor, but he hadn't tried to leave or even made the suggestion. It was his silence that let Shego know he was in far worse shape than even the best massage could cure.

The small room's door opened and admitted a tall, gray-haired and very fit-looking man. His expression was kind, but very confused. He looked between the frowning colorful pair before his eyes settled on Drakken.

"Hello," he greeted. "I'm Dr. Harris. And you must be Dr. Drakken?"

Drakken straightened slightly from his hunched posture on the cot and nodded. "Hello," he said gruffly.

The kind but confused looking man smiled. "Always nice to meet another medico. What is your doctorate in?"

Drakken's frown deepened and Shego could tell he was fighting the instinct to grumble.

"Robotics," he finally lied.

The chiropractor's expression grew more confused. "Oh... Well, looking at your information here it says that you were injured when you were...thrown through a roof?"

Shego narrowed her eyes at Drakken. She should have filled out the form for him. 'Car accident' would have been fine. And the truth certainly didn't help disguise their identities in any way... Not that they ever tried.

"Yes. By an ali—"

"It was an accident," Shego interrupted, trying to divert from the topic of aliens. They needed to stay long enough to actually get Drakken treated, rather than being referred to a shrink.

The doctor looked between the pair with growing confusion.

"Well... Tell me where it hurts."

Drakken slumped forward again. "Everywhere, but mostly my neck. It hurts all the time, but if I turn it..." Drakken turned his head in a way anyone would, and he winced. Shego recalled he still hadn't had any painkillers that day.

"Okay, let's have a look."

Shego watched the doctor's face as he felt at the base of Drakken's skull and down his neck almost too briefly for her liking.

"Oh yeah, that's out. But based on your...accident...I think we should also do an X-ray. If you go back out to the waiting room, the nurse will be with you in a moment. And then come back here and we'll get your range of motion and start the adjustment."

Drakken seemed surprised at the sudden change, but Shego knew it was normal. A few minutes later found her standing outside another room and peering through a window behind a technician's shoulder as Drakken's neck and back were X-rayed.

She noted that when Drakken was made to change into a hospital gown that he was careful again to hide his chest from her. It made her even more curious about what sort of tattoo could be so awful or embarrassing that he wouldn't let her see it. But he was so careful to hide it, that she knew that she would need another opportunity besides the chiropractor's office.

Soon he had re-dressed and they were back to waiting in the small exam room with its chiropractic adjustment table. Drakken had looked very nervous and uncomfortable through the X-ray process, and now was frowning deeply. But he still wasn't complaining. Shego knew he was probably far more concerned than he was letting on.

"Hey..." Shego said, suddenly compelled. Drakken glanced at her where she sat in a chair. "I've been to chiropractors more times than I can count. They really help. Then you can...forget all about this."

Shego bit her cheek after the last, not sure why she said it. Of course she hoped Drakken would put everything since prison behind him, but...it wasn't as easy as getting your neck adjusted. Emotions, and...trust...took more time to heal.

An unusual rising of voices outside the room caught both of their attention, and Shego stood up instinctively. Drakken's frown deepened.

"You said that—"

The door opened to reveal the doctor, but beyond him Shego saw uniformed police officers. She flared her hands. The doctor's eyes widened.

"It _is_ you..."

"You called the police?" Shego snarled.

"My receptionist did... I'm sorry, I would have—"

"Rrgh, I don't _care!_ You're treating him. Now. Police or no police. And if you do _anything_ to make him worse, then you'll be needing more than traction!"

Shego's threat caused both the doctor's and Drakken's eyes to widen. Drakken gazed at Shego curiously as the chiropractor swallowed nervously and started pulling X-ray images out of a folder.

"I actually can't. If you look here," the doctor held the image in front of a light box, "your neck is fractured."

Drakken's eyes widened. Shego's jaw dropped. They looked at each other, and then back to the doctor. He seemed surprised by their response but shook it off in a hurry.

"I can...refer you to a specialist?" he suggested anxiously, glancing back through the open door. Shego looked and saw two police officers approaching.

"Yes please," she said and darted through the door, her hands still ablaze.

The two officers reached for their sidearms, but Shego flared her hands brighter and moved to within three feet of them as she spoke.

"Don't even think about it!"

The two officers froze and stared at her. Shego was aware of the other patients and staff likewise un-moving in her peripheral vision.

"Your choices are, be smart and everyone walks out of here happy. Or be stupid and there will property damage. _And,_ you get hurt. And maybe someone else, and it will be your fault."

Shego heard movement behind her but didn't look. It was Drakken's familiar step, followed by that of the doctor. She waited until Drakken was by her side, holding a manila folder with a business card attached to the front via paperclip and looking a mixture of anxious and upset.

The police officers looked uncertain. Drakken glanced back at the doctor, wincing as he turned too quick and his neck hurt. Shego almost lost her focus on the officers when she saw his wince, knowing now that the cause was more serious.

"Thank you," Drakken said lowly.

The doctor nodded, watching Shego nervously.

Drakken hurried out of the building and Shego followed more slowly, watching everyone carefully and daring them with her eyes to try something or to follow them.

She waited until Drakken was in the hover-car, in the passenger seat this time, and once she heard the click of his seat belt she leapt into the vehicle and lifted it off before Drakken could even speak.

"Okay. Where to next?" she asked, taking the hover-car high in the sky and far out of range of any ground-based attack.

"Back to the lair," Drakken mumbled.

"Ohhh no. Where did that doctor tell you to go? He said he would recommend a specialist."

"I don't want to go to a—"

"Doc. Your neck is fractured. Do you have _any_ idea how serious that is?"

She listened to Drakken's low grumbling, and when she turned she was surprised to find his face twisted in a familiar dark rage.

"Of _course_ I know how serious it is!"

His expression didn't change, and Shego remained silent for several minutes. It was too similar to the look he'd had when he'd tried to strangle her, shoot her, and have his cyborg kill her. Whatever may have re-ignited his anger against her specifically, she wasn't about to try to push.

Finally, Drakken's face untwisted from its dark fury to just a mild anger. He sighed and leaned back in the shallow seat as much as possible. He reached up to rub his neck and then hesitated, fear coming into his eyes.

Shego looked at the folder on his lap. She impulsively grabbed the business card off the front and then programmed the address into the hover-car's navigation computer.

"Shego!"

"Okay... It's a Dr. Boyd, not far from here. That's our next stop."

"I told you I don't—"

"It's your neck. It's _important,_ Dr. D."

"I know that!" he snapped. He was silent for several seconds, and Shego eyed him warily as she flew toward the address on the business card. After a minute he sighed heavily. "I would like to do my own research before seeking treatment. Who knows what sort of quacks might be out there."

"Like a certain 'doctor' of robotics? Come on Dr. D., you know that you can't trust everything you read on the web."

"Shego, I understand your point of view, however I think it would best if I just—"

"No, Doc," she answered, shaking her head. "I'm making the call on this one. It's my job to protect you, and...making sure you get the proper treatment falls into that category."

"No it doesn't."

"I say it does," she said, and increased the hover-car's speed. She watched Drakken's grumbling and found her concerns about the nature of their relationship fading in the face of his behavior. "What are you afraid of?" she blurted out.

Drakken's frown deepened as she studied him, and she suddenly regretted her words. Maybe part of her 'second chance' was dependent on her doing exactly what he wanted? He didn't answer, which made her think she'd hit upon something with her guess that he was afraid. He probably thought that it was worse than the chiropractor had been able to discern... And that recovery might take time away from world domination plots.

He didn't say anything. She tightened her hands on the steering column and stared straight ahead. "I promised to protect you," she said through gritted teeth. "Even if that means...watching out while your neck heals. It's my job."

He was silent, and she felt the tension that had built in her shoulders and jaw begin to relax. Maybe he would—

"You didn't care about your 'job' when you got out of prison... You only cared when I replaced you."

Shego felt a lump rise in her throat. She really shouldn't be pushing her luck... But maybe now that he knew his neck was fractured, he would be more cautious? It was really, really stupid. She shouldn't ask...

"Dr. D., what happened after I left? After Warmonga threw you through the roof."

He turned toward her suddenly and then grabbed his neck with both hands and let out a gasp of pain, followed immediately by a look of fear. Shego bit her cheek as she looked at him.

"We're going to the hospital and getting your neck fixed up," she said calmly and decisively, though she noted an unwelcome tremor creeping into her voice. "But...I want to know what happened. You said you laid on the beach for hours. Then what?"

The pain in Drakken's eyes turned briefly to anger, but then confusion. He blinked at her as he cautiously rubbed his neck and sat up a little straighter.

"Reminding me of your betrayal is an interesting way of showing you want to keep your job."

Shego bit the inside of both cheeks. Why did she want to know anyway? Just thinking about the possibility of him possibly dying on the beach made her nerves tingle in a terrible way. Learning more about his near-death that was really her fault was just...punishing herself.

"They'll want to know at the hospital anyway. Everything you've done to your neck... If you tell me now, then we can skip all the irrelevant stuff when we get there. Because we both know you'll go off on some tangent, or try to talk about aliens... We'll be in and out faster."

She sighed silently in relief at her own somewhat-coherent explanation. From the disturbed yet thoughtful look on Drakken's face, it appeared it was working.

"So...what happened?" she asked. Her heart pounded as she stared at him and waited.

Drakken scowled at her, but then he slowly turned away and closed his eyes.

"I..." He sighed. "I was...too afraid to move after the currents brought me to the beach. So I lie there wondering...what I had done that caused you to betray me." He gave her a brief glance with narrowed eyes, but then looked away again with a bitter frown. "After awhile I stopped caring why. I just thought of how I could take revenge if I ever saw you again. And since you're so afraid of robots..."

Shego wanted to protest that she wasn't afraid, but now that he was talking she didn't want to interrupt.

"When the tide came in I had no choice, but to move or drown. So I went back inside, through the beach door. And then I..."

Shego watched as his expression grew embarrassed. He seemed to fight with himself for several seconds, but then he blinked away the embarrassment and it turned to anger.

"After I got out of my wet clothes I...lay on the bathroom floor for two days. I was too afraid to move. My neck felt like it wouldn't support my head. Like it...like it might just fall off." Shego saw the fear in his eyes as he recalled the events. "I only moved if I had to... And I started making plans. With a threat like Warmonga around, I needed the most powerful weapon I've ever imagined. And when my neck didn't hurt just to move anymore I hired back the henchmen. They helped me upstairs, and we started to rebuild the lair, as you know. And I started building Pistis."

"You didn't build her to replace me?" Shego said, and immediately regretted every word. Drakken slowly turned and gave her the strangest stare. It was calculating, and yet there was something hesitant in his eyes. He took a breath and after shaking his head ever so slightly, he continued.

"Replace you...after she had killed you. Warmonga may have more advanced technology. But the most dangerous threat is a traitor. And I knew you'd come back..."

"You did?" Shego asked. She put the hover-car on autopilot and kept all her focus on him. Alarms were ringing in her head that signaled the end of the truce and near-normalcy of the morning, and a possible return to his attempts at strangling her. She was glad at least the ray gun had been left behind.

"Yes," he said. His voice was cold, and Shego felt her pulse begin to race. "As long as you think you have the upper hand, you always do what's...easiest for you. And since no one else worked out as your new boss, and since you'd...put me in my place, as I imagine you saw it..." Shego glanced away guiltily. "I knew you'd be back. And I was going to be ready."

When Shego swallowed down the lump in her throat and looked up again, Drakken was staring at her. His expression was a mixture of anger, pain, and...and hate? She quickly lifted her hands and ignited them on instinct, but just as quickly let the glow go out as she made a gesture of innocence.

"I learned my lesson, Doc," she said quickly. Her mind was racing along with the rapid pounding of her heart. They'd been through this already. More than once. He was angry, and she was preparing for defense against a physical attack. And meanwhile, she was desperate to keep her job.

She blinked a few times as she realized even more profoundly it had nothing to do with the job.

She had been comparing other villains to Drakken when she looked through the classifieds in her weeks of freedom from prison. She had been almost sick when she found out from Kim Possible that she had been replaced, and she had pushed that feeling aside for all the others she had demonstrated when she went back to the lair to confront him about Warmonga. And she had been miserable in the week she'd been officially fired, after she finally returned from the spa.

It wasn't the job. It was just...him. Why? Since when were they friends anyway?

His dark expression hadn't changed in several seconds. Shego began wondering if she would need to worry about an attack like the one she'd used on Kim Possible. But then she was saved as the auto-pilot quickly brought the hover-car down in front of a small hospital building.

"Oh... This is the place," she said shakily. Drakken's expression still didn't change. "You...you can be mad at me later, after your neck is fixed."

As soon as the hover-car landed she hopped out and took several steps away. Drakken scoffed and climbed out more slowly, and then she walked at his side but a few steps distant as they went into the hospital.

They went the official route again, filling out paperwork and waiting with other patients in a couple of different waiting rooms throughout the process. Having the chiropractor's referral helped, since they received far more curious and downright frightened looks in the hospital than they had in the chiropractor's office. But with the paperwork in their favor they had an even shorter wait at the hospital.

Shego followed Drakken into an exam room without asking permission, too anxious now about his injuries to wait to hear it from him later. And, she was resolute in her promise to protect him. She wouldn't let him out of her sight in public, if that's what it took to earn his trust. And plus she now had the nagging guilt that if she hadn't left him to begin with...he wouldn't possibly be facing a permanent injury.

They sat through the questioning of the nurse and the taking of Drakken's blood pressure, and then a startlingly short time later they were greeted by the doctor whose name was on the business card. They sat again through basically the same questions that the nurse had asked with little variation and greater detail. Drakken was very hesitant about answering, but Dr. Boyd was good at prying the answers out of him. Although after a glare from Shego he kept his mouth shut about the alien throwing him through the roof. 'Car accident' was the offered explanation instead.

When the questioning ended Drakken was sent off for another round of X-rays, more extensive than before, and Shego followed closely behind again without asking for permission. She remembered missing her chance to see his tattoo at the chiropractor's office, and while she knew it was realistically probably unimportant, it was a decent distraction from everything else racing through her mind.

When the X-ray technician gave him the hospital gown and told Shego she could wait outside, she crossed her arms and shook her head. The technician didn't give her another glance, but Drakken eyed her suspiciously.

"Do you mind?" he asked even as he carefully removed his lab coat.

"I'm protecting you."

"There isn't anything in here that's going to hurt me," he pointed out as he turned his back to her to take his shirt off.

"That's what we thought at the chiropractor before someone called the police."

"Then shouldn't you be outside watching for them?"

Drakken put the hospital gown on, tied it in the back, and then turned to face her. His frown was now a bit anxious.

"I'm comfortable right here," she said, giving a tiny smirk. It was a strategic look, and it had the desired effect.

"Really Shego, it's one thing to want to do your job... It's another to watch me take off my pants."

Shego let her smirk grow and looked away at a corner of the ceiling. "I'm not watching."

She kept her eyes averted as she listened to the rustle of clothing amid Drakken's grumbling. She didn't exactly have a plan yet to see his chest tattoo. She knew it would need to be after the X-rays, or else the resulting inevitable fight might make him refuse to continue to get treatment for his neck. But it would be her only chance.

She did have the thought that she could wait until they were back at the lair, but then she would need some excuse to see him shirtless. Offering another massage seemed a bit excessive once he had an official prescription from a doctor. And she felt weird enough about the massages as it was... She knew it had just been the emotion and adrenaline that let her do it before. A weird twisting in her stomach was the result now as she thought of offering that much...intimacy, again.

She thought back to his offer that morning to massage her temples. She realized then that her headache had mostly gone; the day's distractions had caused her to forget about it. But as she considered the remaining light pressure in her skull she found herself remembering the gentle touch of Drakken's gloved fingers on her temples.

If he was so angry and distrustful of her...why would he even offer? Why would he care to return the favor, as he had said, if he really didn't want her around? The brief sense of normalcy of the morning was long gone thanks to her pressing him about what had happened to him after the beach, and were they not at the hospital she knew she'd be much more worried about avoiding another murderous attack.

"What?" Drakken asked.

Shego was startled out of her thoughts as Drakken stood nervously near the X-ray machine. He looked something between ridiculous and vulnerable wearing nothing but the hospital gown, his blue knees knocking together a couple of times as he fidgeted.

"Nothing," Shego said, shaking her head. "I'll go tell the guy you're ready."

A minute later, and Shego stood behind the glass again as this time a greater number of X-rays were taken. She was relieved that they would have a better idea of what was going on with him. She also felt a resolve growing in her to make sure he would be okay, despite his obvious anger. Even if the ultimate conclusion was that he permanently fired her...

The thought made her ill. And the fact that it did was still confusing her. But the revelation about his loyalty to her after the tower collapse was cementing itself in the back of her mind, and somehow was also finding its way into her heart. She had never thought of herself as loyal to anyone. Except to herself, of course. And Drakken—self-centered, self-declared evil genius—had demonstrated loyalty to his mere side-kick by allowing himself to be arrested rather than abandon her when she was gravely injured.

She frowned in frustration. The new, odd drive to protect Drakken from...everything, was taking over her thoughts. What was wrong with her?

The X-ray technician finished taking the pictures, and after sending them to a printer he left the room. Shego was startled out of her thoughts and rushed back to the door. This was her only logical chance to see Drakken's tattoo. She still had no plan... At that point, she figured it wouldn't hurt anything to just grab him and be honest about her intentions.

She rolled her eyes at herself. It wasn't like he could do any worse to her... She opened the door to the room and hurried in.


	9. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "So, uh..." She had no real plan, and it made her uneasy. But it would be worse to drag it out. She took a cautious breath. "About that tattoo on your chest..."
> 
> Drakken's scowl deepened, and as he stared at her, a deep hurt and embarrassment joined the fury in his eyes. Shego felt her chest constrict further even as she hoped his renewed anger was just to cover whatever else he was feeling. He almost looked...ashamed? Whatever it was, it was all tied to the loyalty he'd shown for her that she'd unknowingly failed to reciprocate.
> 
> Drakken pursed his lips and appeared on the edge of saying something, but there was marked hesitation in his eyes.
> 
> "It's...really good," she said, when he didn't answer after several seconds.
> 
> "Just another miscalculation," he finally muttered, glancing away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: We are in the home stretch... Not many more chapters after this one! Thank you to the commenters!!! Kudos are nice, but comments are like oxygen. 
> 
> Finally...the tattoo shall be revealed! Sorry this chapter is short, and the next one is even shorter... But after that they're back to normal length. I'll update faster this week because of two short chapters.

** Chapter 8 **

As Shego's luck would have it, she found Drakken already facing the door with his shirt off and buckling the belt of his pants. Shego's jaw dropped. Drakken let out a strangled cry and whirled around.

"Shego!" he yelled. His voice was pure panic.

Shego blinked at his back, the other tattoos she had already seen a blur in her vision as she mentally fixated on the image of the tattoo she had briefly seen on his chest. Two words, one on top of the other, that started at his breastbone and then covered his left pectoral.

The tattoo was a remarkable recreation of the words she had burned into the wall of the lair less than a year ago, right down to the graffiti style. She had been really proud of that carving, rarely ever using her powers for artistic endeavors. Drakken must have drawn it out in intricate detail for the tattoo artist to have recreated it so perfectly.

_'Shego Rocks.'_

Drakken was saying something, but she couldn't hear him. She felt almost dizzy as her mind raced to understand what she had just seen. But more than that, the tattoo was the final blow in the whole disaster of a situation.

He had been more than loyal to her. And he...admired?...something about her, so much so that he had sat through the pain of getting a tattoo of her name on his chest of all places. It hadn't been a whim either, because he had to have drawn that specific image for the artist. The tattoo had been a deliberate choice, with a lot of thought behind it.

Drakken had put on his shirt and turned back around as he shrugged into his lab coat. He was scowling at her and saying something, but she still wasn't listening. Shego blinked several times and forced herself back into the present.

"Shego? Shego are you even listening?"

She swallowed nervously. "S-sorry, Dr. D. I was..." His scowl turned into a deep frown. "...Distracted," she finished.

Drakken looked down, and Shego's brow rose at the look of embarrassment and defeat that suddenly came over him. But he shook it off far more rapidly than she had her distraction.

"Um. What were you saying?" she asked. There was a slight tremor in her voice that she hoped wasn't audible.

He glanced up at her with a crushed and bitter look. She knew that he knew she had seen the tattoo.

"I was saying you don't just...barge in on people while they're changing."

"Sorry..." she heard herself murmur.

Drakken pushed past her without a look as he buttoned his coat and left the X-ray room. Shego turned and hurried after him as he followed the signs back to the exam room.

Why hadn't he wanted her to see the tattoo? What did it matter? If their positions had been reversed, she would have wanted to rub it in his face... The sick feeling in her stomach was proof of the impact his deeper show of loyalty and...friendship...was having on her.

She stopped walking suddenly as Drakken bypassed the exam room, and then she lunged forward and grabbed his arm.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked, guessing his actions.

"Back to the lair," he said, trying to shrug off her grip.

"Ohhh no. You're getting your neck treated."

He tried to shake her off more forcefully, but he jerked his neck in the process and with a gasp of pain he brought his free hand up to grip the pained spot and leaned against the hallway wall with his other hand. Shego took the chance to drag him back to the room, and he only offered a slight resistance as his face was twisted in pain.

Inside the exam room she pushed him to sit down on the table, and then she took her place in the guest's chair as she had before. He rubbed his neck with both hands and glared at her, but she looked back with equal challenge. She meant what she'd said about her job of protecting him including making sure he got treatment. They wouldn't leave until they had something definitive.

After a minute, Drakken opened his mouth to speak, but the door opening and admitting the doctor stopped whatever he'd been about to say.

For the next several minutes, they both looked at the X-rays and listened attentively to the doctor's prognosis. They were surprised to hear that his neck had previously been worse, but was already healing very well. Shego realized that Drakken's fear-driven choice to lay un-moving on the beach and then on the hard stone floor of the lair for two days was probably the reason. And because of the healing that had occurred, he would only need to wear a neck brace for six to eight weeks for complete healing. And of course, to move with caution.

Shego saw the relief that seemed to wash over Drakken's entire body as she felt the same. She hadn't even allowed the idea presence that he may end up permanently injured. But now the understanding of the various horrible fates he had avoided were swimming through her mind. It was more dizzying than the sight of his tattoo.

A few minutes later they were given a printed list of instructions, and Drakken was wearing one of those off-white foam-wrapped brace collars that looked absolutely ridiculous. The look on his face showed he felt it as well, and Shego was grateful for the distraction. She didn't want to deal with whatever he had been thinking after he realized she saw his fifth tattoo.

They left the hospital without incident, though the strange looks they received from everyone they passed let her know that they certainly weren't passing for average citizens. Especially not in their usual attire.

Shego waited until Drakken was situated in the passenger seat of the hover-car before climbing in herself. When both of their seat belts were fastened, she lifted off and took the vehicle at top speed back toward the lair. She found herself desperate for something familiar, and the lair was the only thing that really fit the bill.

Drakken was quiet throughout the flight, occasionally grumbling as he read through the papers the doctor had given him about the necessary care for his neck and the eventual therapy he would need. Shego was still in too much shock about his tattoo and didn't dare start a conversation until she had more clarity about it.

Her chest felt tight as she realized that the friendship she was only just beginning to grasp was probably something he had felt for a long time; he had called them an 'evil family' more than once. Or maybe...it was something other than friendship. But whatever it was, the point was that he had it and she didn't. He had tried to save her against all odds, and she had betrayed him.

He didn't trust her anymore. For good reason. And she didn't know how to earn his trust back.

Maybe...maybe she should go back to Middleton, and actually kill Kim Possible? Just the thought made her sick... And she had no way of knowing if it would convince him. Who knew what went on in his head...other than that he clearly took their relationship very seriously.

Whatever exactly their 'relationship' was.

Questions kept building and burning in her mind, most of them about Drakken's tattoo. But she swallowed down the instinct to ask them, based on the way his face couldn't seem to settle into any one expression or emotion. One moment he looked furious, and another, frightened as he read the doctor's papers. But then still he would look embarrassed, moreso when he knew she had caught the look on his face, and also would appear utterly dismayed about something only he knew as his mind raced.

Was it about his neck? Was it about the tattoo? Was it about...trusting her? Shego didn't know. And her own mind was in far too disorganized a state to begin to know what question to ask.

The result led to the entirety of the ride being spent in uncharacteristic silence. And when Shego parked the hover-car at the lair Drakken disembarked with a haste that suggested to Shego that it was her he was trying to get away from.

"Um..." she said as she hurried after him.

"What?" he snapped, turning with a glare. It was anger, in that moment.

"I want to read those when you're done," she said, putting some authority into her voice as she pointed at the papers from the doctor.

Drakken growled but then nodded curtly, and turned and went into the lair. Shego followed him from several paces behind, and she couldn't help but glance at the intricately-carved graffiti over the doorway that matched his tattoo as they passed it. She wanted to get another look at the tattoo to compare it to the carving again.

After a few turns and one staircase later, they entered the hallway toward their bedrooms. Drakken stopped outside his door and turned toward her suddenly.

"Did you need something?" he fairly snapped.

"Uh..." Shego realized that she really didn't have a reason to be following him. He'd gotten the information he needed... He knew what was wrong with his neck, and what to do about it. And there really wasn't anything for her to do in her role as 'protector' when he just needed to keep still and rest.

_'Could offer him another massage... No.'_

"Uh, just...going to my room," she said.

Drakken gave her a distrustful stare, but she caught behind his eyes...embarrassment again. About the tattoo?

He wordlessly continued walking. Shego watched him enter his room without giving her a second glance, but she didn't continue on to her own. She stood in the hall and stared at his closed door, feeling completely at a loss for what to do.

_'I need another vacation...'_

The familiar clenching feeling around her chest began as she realized that some of the gains she had made the day before, with him willingly destroying his robot and being willing to talk to her had likely been erased now that she had seen his tattoo. He had been trying so hard to hide it... But why did it matter so much?

Shego scoffed at herself and felt her stomach begin to hurt almost as bad as her chest as she stepped up to the door and knocked. Several seconds passed, and she wondered if Drakken might just choose to ignore her. But the door did finally open, and Drakken stood scowling at her.

"I thought you were leaving?"

Shego fidgeted with the ends of her hair. Any other day she would have made fun of Drakken with the soft neck-brace contrasting his menacing expression. But with his still-changing moods it was very low on her list of acceptable things to do.

"So, uh..." She had no real plan, and it made her uneasy. But it would be worse to drag it out. She took a cautious breath. "About that tattoo on your chest..."

Drakken's scowl deepened, and as he stared at her, a deep hurt and embarrassment joined the fury in his eyes. Shego felt her chest constrict further even as she hoped his renewed anger was just to cover whatever else he was feeling. He almost looked...ashamed? Whatever it was, it was all tied to the loyalty he'd shown for her that she'd unknowingly failed to reciprocate.

Drakken pursed his lips and appeared on the edge of saying something, but there was marked hesitation in his eyes.

"It's...really good," she said, when he didn't answer after several seconds.

"Just another miscalculation," he finally muttered, glancing away. "Did you want something?"

His words echoed in her mind. She didn't know why she was punishing herself, especially after how he had punished her the past day...and week... But she couldn't help herself.

"A...miscalculation?" she asked quietly.

The anger in Drakken's eyes faded to irritation as the bitterness and hurt grew. But Shego barely registered the change for the words he spoke next.

"Yes. Just like thinking...I could ever count on you."

Shego took a step back as the words replayed in her head. It felt like she had just been punched in the stomach. She realized she had been hoping for a denial, or a reassurance. She wanted him to repeat what he'd said earlier that day, after lunch... That he was giving her another chance. And he may well be, except it seemed that the trust she'd thought she was building back had collapsed again.

"What can I do to...to...convince you?" she said, her voice trailing off into a mumble as she realized how pathetic she sounded.

They were right back where they'd been the day before, when he'd told her to kill Kim Possible. And she'd already failed in that. She watched as Drakken seemed to consider not her question, but her. His irritation faded to confusion...and then back again. Emotions began to play over his face as they had in the hover-car, and each time anger came up as one of them it lasted longer and his eyes grew darker.

She suddenly didn't want to hear whatever other venom he might throw at her, and as he opened his mouth to speak she cut him off.

"Actually Dr. D., um...never-mind. I'm just gonna...yeah."

She turned and headed briskly down the hall toward her room. She didn't hear his door close and knew he was watching her, and it made her quicken her pace.

Once outside her door, she struggled with trying her code twice before she remembered it was still set on the generic code. When the door finally opened she hurried through with a relieved sigh, and leaned back as soon as the door closed behind her.

She stared at the familiarity of the room, which still had things slightly out of place as it had been the henchmen who set it to rights and not her. She considered getting to work then and there at making everything perfect... But she felt emotionally drained from everything that had happened and collapsed on the bed instead.

She stared at the ceiling for several minutes, seeing Drakken's tattoo in her mind's eye once again. She still wanted to get more information about it from him... But she was too afraid of what else he might say if she were to talk to him about practically anything. Every conversation now just came back to her betrayal.

Shego rolled onto her side and closed her eyes. Sleep seemed like a good idea suddenly as both her heart and stomach hurt. The urge to talk to Drakken was so strong, but at the same time she knew the act would only bring pain.

What was wrong with her? Why did she _care!?_

She wanted to argue that it didn't matter if he cared so much. So what if he thought more of their friendship than she did? It shouldn't matter. It was just Drakken completely missing the mark on something, as he frequently did.

Except...she knew it wasn't. The pain in her chest wasn't just due to the understanding of her betrayal, and why it affected him so much. It was because she had hurt her friend. And she wanted...

She wanted her friend back.

She hadn't even realized what she'd lost, until now it might be too late.

For the longest time she lay un-moving, trying to get her body's reactions to calm. The sick rolling of her stomach was so intense that it distracted from the pain in her chest and the distressing thoughts.

Minutes turned into hours. But sleep wouldn't come.

She tossed and turned on her bed, struggling to find any sort of relief until the natural light of the room began to dim. But not even physical comfort would come, let alone any hint of peace of mind.

She finally lay stock still on her back, hands at her sides like a corpse, and closed her eyes and refused to move. She had heard somewhere that if a person doesn't move for long enough, they'll fall asleep.

Darkness swirled in her mind, along with echoes of the various things Drakken had said to her from the first day she'd come back up until that day, all of them menacing, hurtful, and worse. She finally felt herself begin to drift off in fear and sadness...

She heard a sliding metallic noise. She turned instinctively toward the sound and looked up.

The bright white eyes of Pistis shone above her.


	10. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Her face dipped beneath the water, and then she pushed herself up again. The numbness in her limbs began to fade, but it was replaced with pain. Searing and aching, over every muscle in her body and penetrating through every bone of her spine. The combination of pain and numbness caused her limbs to reject her brain's commands of keeping her above the surface. She sank down again, and weakly pushed back up only because her lungs demanded it. The burning in her hands was her anchor to reality, and she used the sensation to bring any control left within her to her muscles. But rather than strengthening, it left her more and more with each passing second.
> 
> She couldn't breathe. She couldn't stay afloat. And when she remembered to use her eyes, she saw the lair...much, much too far away. She had flown far on the hover-board before the cyborg had caught her.
> 
> _'I'm going to die...'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Another direct continuation of the previous chapter. I'm sorry it's so short!!! Only time this will happen, I promise. 
> 
> This chapter includes Warnings: near drowning.

**Chapter 9 **

Shego screamed and fired her glow as she scrambled backward, falling off her bed. The robot's orange shield clapped into place instantly, and then its long silvery arms reached over the bed for her. Shego somersaulted backwards and then hopped to her feet and ran.

She dashed through her door and ran blindly through the hallway, wondering... Where had the cyborg come from? Was it another one? Had Drakken made a duplicate as backup, or...had he salvaged the one he had willingly destroyed in his renewed anger toward her? And if the latter, how had he done it so quickly? The henchmen...? If them, when had he called?

The sound of the robot's heavy step behind her caused her to quicken her pace. She ran out onto the balcony and hopped on her hover-board, flying away fast without sparing a glance behind. Her mind was racing... If Drakken had changed his mind about letting her back into his life...as it appeared...was she going to now have to watch her back wherever she went? Had he in fact decided to kill her after all?

A familiar roaring and burning sound reached her ears, and as she looked back over her shoulder her eyes widened in fright. The cyborg had rocket-boots. And it was quickly gaining on her.

Shego fired at it, watching as the orange shield rose up around it but left the area at the feet open for the rocket exhaust to escape. She narrowed her eyes. That could be a point of weakness... And since Drakken had designed it with a shield, that might mean that its body was generally vulnerable to her glow. If she could get beneath it in some way to fire at the opening in the shield...

Her calculating thoughts were ended suddenly, as the cyborg moved at such a great speed that it was instantly at her side. The pressure wave from the accelerated air hit her hard, and she struggled for balance as she stared fearfully at the white eyes of the menacing monster. And then with a single slash, the robot had sliced her hover-board in two between her feet.

Shego fell. She watched the pieces of her hover-board burn and fall more slowly, spinning and fluttering through the air like pieces of paper caught on the wind, the damaged ends burning and sparking where the electrical components had been severed. And above them, the robot hovered and stared down at her with its blank, expressionless face.

Shego was stunned from the speed of everything that had happened and began tumbling head-over-heels toward the water below. She realized that she was falling from far too high up... She would die instantly when she hit the water.

She didn't want to die.

She watched the gray surface reflecting gold from the sunset growing nearer and nearer, and when she was about ten feet away she quickly tightened into a ball, holding her breath and tucking her head down.

The impact was worse than any car accident she'd been in, and worse than when Warmonga had thrown her through the door and into the computer. She felt numb all over...and she realized after a moment that she had no breath. Somehow the breath she had taken was gone.

Her limbs unfolded of their own accord, and none of her attempts to move them yielded any result. She was sinking. Her hair floated up around her like a shroud, blocking her gaze to the right and left and giving her tunnel-vision upward. She watched as the surface of the water rolled above, far from her face, the golden light both a sign of hope and the sunset a sad beginning to her epitaph.

As alert as her mind was, she couldn't get her body to respond.

Her lungs burned for air, and she did the only thing she found she could and ignited her hands. She felt the familiar heat and power at her fingertips, and after a few moments she felt her rubbery muscles respond to a command. She swept her arms down to push her body upward.

She repeated the motion several times, and then her legs responded as well. She weakly forced her way to the surface of the water, her glowing hands breaking through first and then finally her face. She gulped in air as if she had forgotten how and struggled to breathe as her rubbery limbs still only half-answered her brain's demands that they needed to _move_.

Her face dipped beneath the water, and then she pushed herself up again. The numbness in her limbs began to fade, but it was replaced with _pain_. Searing and aching, over every muscle in her body and penetrating through every bone of her spine. The combination of pain and numbness caused her limbs to reject her brain's commands of keeping her above the surface. She sank down again, and weakly pushed back up only because her lungs demanded it. The burning in her hands was her anchor to reality, and she used the sensation to bring any control left within her to her muscles. But rather than strengthening, it left her more and more with each passing second.

She couldn't breathe. She couldn't stay afloat. And when she remembered to use her eyes, she saw the lair...much, much too far away. She had flown far on the hover-board before the cyborg had caught her.

_'I'm going to die...'_

Suddenly she realized, the weakness, the pain, and the helplessness she felt must be similar to what Drakken had experienced when he was thrown through the roof and fell alone into the sea. And now, he had come up with the perfect revenge... Betraying her with Pistis, the painful fall to the waters, and finally...drowning her. A perfect mirror. She could have admired his plan if she wasn't dying.

Her face slipped beneath the surface again, and she forced herself back up with effort. But the numbness was coming back to her limbs through the pain. She couldn't get enough air in the moments her face did manage to stay above the water. She wondered at the veritable miracle of Drakken's survival as she realized there would be no tide or current to save her and bring her to the shores of the lair.

A familiar hum reached her ears and then suddenly, the hover-car appeared in her field of vision. As it slowed and moved low over the rolling waves, Shego saw Drakken's face... He looked...afraid, and worried. He gasped as he spotted her, and the hover-car increased its speed until it stopped right above her. Drakken bent over the side and reached out his hand.

Shego was afraid of him... But she was more afraid of drowning. She lifted a glowing hand without feeling, and then Drakken gripped her arm past her elbow and hauled her up and into the back of the hover-car, wincing in pain as her glow touched the arm of his coat and singed it. She fell across the bench of the back seats, her body aching and heavy. The glow in her hands went out.

Despite the pain and disorientation, her heart still found its way to pound in fear. She didn't trust him... She _couldn't_ trust him... But it was better to be alive.

"Shego, are you all right?"

Shego weakly lifted her eyes to his that were still worried, afraid, and now confused. Her own confusion was spiraling out of control as she blinked tiredly and her mind raced over what had just transpired... Why didn't he look pleased? Why had he pulled her out? Shouldn't he have been gloating?

Suddenly, the menacing hulk of Pistis swooped down toward her from the skies above. Shego screamed and recoiled against the back of the seats. And then...the cyborg was frozen, hovering in mid-air about three feet from her face.

Shego blinked several times, surprised at her ability to scream and move so fast. Her eyes drifted to Drakken...who was holding the robot's remote. Fear surged through her anew at the sight of it.

How had he found it? She remembered him throwing it... Hadn't he thrown it? Or had just been a trick? Or perhaps it was a backup remote, or maybe he'd put a tracking device in it...

"Backup remote," he said almost distractedly, answering her unspoken question. He pressed another button on the remote while she stared at him.

_'It was a lie? Destroying the robot was a lie...'_

Just then Shego instinctively leaned over the side of the hover-car, just in time to throw up into the ocean. She peripherally saw Drakken frown. He sighed heavily and started flying back to the lair, distraction joining the fear and confusion in his eyes.

Shego lay down numbly in the backseat. Despite the strange agony of her body, her mind was alive. She didn't understand. If Drakken was trying to kill her, why had he come to save her?

She decided then without any second-thoughts, as soon as they landed and he was out of the car...she was gone.

"Are you all right?"

Shego again didn't answer the question. Why would he ask, if he was trying to kill her? Unless he was planning something worse for her, and needed to know how she was so he could plan appropriately...

She slowly sat up, surprised at her body's ability to do so. She looked around. Pistis hadn't followed them back. Shego's heart pounded. Where was it?

The hover-car landed at the lair, and Shego watched as Drakken disembarked. As soon as his hand was off the car, she painfully launched herself feet-first into the driver's seat and took off.

"Shego! Shego, what are you doing?"

Shego's stomach churned and she swallowed down on the urge to throw up again. Her entire body shook, and her vision was spinning in a large, counter-clockwise circle. She paused in her escape to look back at the blue man shielding his eyes and staring up at her from the balcony.

"You get your wish, Doc. I'm leaving. I won't come back this time. I—"

She realized suddenly, she couldn't promise not to come back. Because...

Drakken was looking up at her with an anxious confusion. "But...but Shego! You promised to protect me!"

She couldn't promise not to come back, because she was breaking that first promise by leaving now. She looked at the off-white brace Drakken wore and thought of his fractured neck. She thought of how much he meant to her, though she didn't understand why.

"I wanted to. But there's no point...when you just want me dead."

Tears filled her eyes as she gazed down at him. He looked...almost ashamed as he stared back silently. Could he actually...?

_'No!'_

"I'm sorry. I hope you... Please don't do anything stupid. Take care of yourself. Goodbye Dr. D."

She turned and set the hover-car at top speed and on the auto-pilot setting that would take her to the mainland. Hot tears streamed down her face as she crumpled in the seat. But she forced herself back up. Any movement brought pain... But she had to watch out for Pistis.


	11. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drakken didn't blink or even breathe for several seconds. He just stared at her, seeming almost afraid and trying to read her. But truly all she wanted was to see it. She hoped that whatever was bothering him wouldn't get in the way of his ability to discern her motives.
> 
> He finally sighed and looked down. He stood up and started unbuttoning his lab coat. Shego slowly ate another spoonful of yogurt as she watched him, and then stood up when he pulled the coat off and draped it on the back of the chair. He unbuttoned his shirt, and Shego stepped around the table to be in front of him.
> 
> He didn't meet her eyes as he undressed from the waist up. He appeared...ashamed. But she didn't understand why.
> 
> He draped his shirt over the back of the chair and then carefully pulled off the white tank top he wore underneath, minding the neck brace. Shego's eyes widened on the large tattoo that was distinctly situated over his heart. She took a step closer.
> 
> The tattoo was a near-perfect replication of the carved graffiti she'd made in the lair, just as she'd thought. She absently reached a hand forward as if to touch it, but then drew back when he tensed.
> 
> "I'm sorry, Shego," he said quietly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Two chapters left after this one... No warnings this chapter. Please comment! Thanks again to those who have!!!

**Chapter 10 **

For the entire first week after her leaving, Shego lay in the bed of a cheap motel. On the first day she only got up to vomit or use the bathroom, and after three days she finally tried eating some pretzels from a vending machine which didn't go down well. She drank water sparingly despite knowing she needed to stay hydrated, as each day was spent mostly in crying. She had never cried so much in her life, but she couldn't stop. And she truly didn't know which was worse—the pain from the fall, or the pain in her heart.

The second week, she got better accommodation—a beach house that she paid for with Drakken's credit card, of course. She already had substantial funds from her solo endeavors after prison, but she still stole a great deal of his and put them in her account. Maybe he wouldn't be able to afford to make anymore super-cyborgs without his millions...

That week was spent carefully testing out her body and finally eating something other than pretzels as she tried to get her strength back. Though for some reason anything she ate made her sick to her stomach, so she didn't put much effort into it. She didn't seem to have any permanent injuries... She wondered if she had fallen from a lesser height than Drakken had, or if her instincts to tighten up before the impact had been what saved her. She would definitely have to take it easy for awhile, and decided that any evil she committed would have to be of the more subtle variety.

The third week, she finally started venturing out. The beach house wasn't going to pay for itself, and since all of her belongings were at Drakken's lair—a place she could never return to—she needed more clothes. She went shopping and after buying far more than she could ever need, she robbed the safes of various department stores in the shopping mall. That was far easier and less dangerous than robbing a bank, considering she wasn't sure if she had any endangering and as of yet unknown injuries.

She had hoped that doing evil things on her own would help her forget about Drakken. She still cried sometimes when she thought of him... But each time, she further closed the door on the friendship she'd not even known she had. Because Drakken was right in what he had said before... She couldn't remember his exact words, but part of being evil...meant not being able to be close to anyone.

She had been stupid to even allow herself to feel friendship for him in the first place... She would never make that mistake with another villain, ever again.

She repeated it like a mantra every time Drakken entered her mind, which was almost constantly for days. But gradually the tears came less and less... She forced the pain of loss away and built a new default setting in her mind for whenever her thoughts drifted to him. She thought of how evil he was and how he had carefully crafted his plans to kill her. She respected him... He was brilliant, calculating, and had matchless ambition. He would definitely take over the world someday...if only he had someone to help keep him focused.

Shego choked down bile at that thought and forced it away. Evil dictators couldn't have side-kicks, after all.

During the fourth week, she tried to relax.

Her beach house was secluded, as it had to be for a villainess. So on the fifth morning of that week she donned a black bikini and lay out on the beach to get some sun. It was very early in the morning and the air was still cool even though the sun was warm. It was perfect weather, and relaxing in the sun always helped her clear her mind. She wanted to get to planning some real evil. Knocking off retail stores was fine, but she was feeling almost recovered from her fall a month ago... And she missed the big schemes that Drakken—

Shego frowned and rolled over on her beach towel to lay on her back and closed her eyes behind her sunglasses. She could come up with her own evil schemes. She didn't need to think about—

"Shego?"

A shadow had fallen over her, and her heart raced in sudden fear at the sound of the familiar voice. She forced herself to lie still as she opened her eyes behind her sunglasses.

Drakken stood over her, looking very much himself in his lab coat, and with the off-white neck brace making him look a bit comical. He looked...well. Healthy. The fear began to subside and be replaced as a cool feeling of relief entered her chest. What...what was that feeling?

"What do you want? Come to get your money back?" she asked brusquely, feeling her voice shake. She stood up in a hurry and started back toward her house, leaving her towel behind in the sand.

She was glad he hadn't injured himself further... But the fact that he had sought her out... It couldn't be good.

She felt Drakken walking behind her, matching her steps. She didn't stop him from following her inside the house and into her bedroom, where she quickly threw on a tank top and some short gym shorts over her bikini. Her heart was racing and her chest was a rolling mixture of fear, that odd relief, and...something undefinable.

She finally turned to face him and began studying his posture. He didn't...look like he was about to sic his cyborg on her. Perhaps attack wasn't imminent...

"You were hard to find," he said, ignoring her questions. His eyes were...open, cautious, calculating... But without malice or suspicion. What did it mean?

Shego lowered her sunglasses and after a moment took them off, tossing them onto her vanity. "I _thought_ I made it impossible..." she fairly grumbled, crossing her arms.

"I tracked the hover-car—"

"I pulled the tracking."

"—And then when that went out, I looked for a pattern of crime reports near beaches, since...I knew that's where you would go. And, for any house sales."

She blinked once. That was...smart.

She studied his straight posture, the way his hands fidgeted in front of him, and the way his eyes kept darting away like...just like she was used to, when he was unsure about something. His face was open and earnest. In fact he looked more open to her than he had the first time she came back...

He didn't speak again, and she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Wasn't he going to produce a cyborg to finish her off?

She sighed in irritation. "What are you doing here?"

Drakken blinked twice. "...I...want you to come back..."

Her eyes widened. He looked...so genuine. And she realized, more than looking open...he looked completely like himself.

_'What kind of trick is it this time...?'_

"Why?"

He appeared to hesitate, gripping and un-gripping his fingers. "Evil...isn't the same—" He suddenly scowled and turned away. He pursed his lips and took a deep breath, schooling his features before looking back at her. "Nothing is the same, without you."

She was surprised as her heart began to ache. She thought... She thought she'd gotten past losing him.

"Shego...I want you to come back."

He looked down again. He looked upset, sad...and almost angry. And she found her trepidation fading because...he didn't look mad at her. He looked mad at himself.

"Do you still want to kill me?" she asked.

_'Why am I entertaining this? I can't go back!'_

Drakken looked up and shook his head, but only seemed more upset.

"I realize..." he began, "and let me finish, but then you can mock me all you want... I realize I was foolish to think that trust, and...evil families...were something to hope for in villainy. Villains aren't afforded those luxuries... So," he paused and cleared his throat, "I have a more realistic perspective now. I won't...treat you as anything more than a side-kick. Or...or partner, if you'd like that? I'm sure I can behave...agreeably, for you... If you'll come back."

Shego's heart ached further and her stomach churned. It was all coming back, after a month away. Her remorse over her betrayal and the need to appease him... What was this power he had over her? When had she given it to him?

Sudden heat swept her from head to toe as she allowed the truth to break into her mind. She hadn't been okay for the past month. All she had been doing was existing, and struggling to forget him.

She slowly raised her head as tears filled her eyes against her will. She turned around with a silent snarl at herself and wiped them away before he could see them.

Everything in her wanted to say yes to his request. But she couldn't forget his seemingly insane behavior, claiming to trust her one moment and then trying to kill her the next... Even resurrecting his creation to finish the job, after her pathetic begging and promising to protect him.

Almost as bad were his cold words that she could never forget, about a dictator not being able to trust a side-kick. He had just acknowledged again that trust wasn't possible—her bones ached at the thought—and yet he wanted her back?

"I thought you said...you couldn't have a side-kick," she said slowly, measuring her words. "Because it's impossible to trust one."

"Well." His voice was low and she could hear the hurt in the single word. She turned to face him again. "There are degrees of trust."

His face and words were even.

"Does that mean...that after you take over the world, you might just...get rid of me, since there's a risk I'll betray you...? Again," she finished.

His face grew sad and his gaze fell. It hurt her to verbally acknowledge the betrayal, but...it was what she had done, even if subconsciously. There was no point in pretending anymore that she hadn't.

He took a breath in and sighed out through his nose. "I...I won't want to. I hope I won't have to."

Shego ran her fingers back through her hair and was surprised to find her dark tresses still hot from the sun. She scratched at her scalp idly for a moment and then crossed her arms over the growing pain in her chest.

"Why do you want _me_ to come back?" she asked quietly. "Especially when you have that...that cyborg, instead."

His feeble attempt at persuasion hadn't given her an answer. And his promise of distance from any sort of feeling only made her heart hurt worse. Because after an entire month away and fighting each day to not think of him, she discovered—painfully—that all she wanted was to be with him.

What was wrong with her?

"Maybe you could help me with that," Drakken muttered under his breath, so soft that Shego almost didn't hear. "I've always been...too much of a genius with robotics for my own good."

"What?" Shego breathed as she gave up the fight against tears and let them fill her eyes.

"And you didn't even give me a chance to apologize," he continued, his voice something between a plaintive whine and a whimper. It was agonizingly familiar. He shook his head, eyes wide as if recalling something. "If I hadn't had that backup remote..."

Shego's eyes widened and she blinked rapidly as Drakken looked up at her sadly and anxiously.

"What?"

"I'm sorry, I had forgotten about the fail-safes I built into her— ...Into...into it. I've dismantled it. Which took some doing because she—...it...didn't want to be dismantled."

He sighed and looked down with a slight scowl that she knew was in mourning of his creation. But she found herself stumbling back to sit on the edge of her bed as her legs suddenly didn't want to support her.

If she understood him correctly...he hadn't called the cyborg out of its watery grave to attack her, as she had assumed. Like his past fem-bots it was smarter than its creator and had risen from the dead on its own. And he hadn't flown out on the hover-car to take a final, cruel revenge. He had come to save her.

Again.

Her head was spinning.

"Shego...please come back."

She looked up at his embarrassed and sad eyes.

"I'm sorry about everything. I... I miss you... But if you come back, I promise I'll be more professional, and not so...familiar. Oh, and I'm...I'm going to have that tattoo removed. So you don't have to feel...as uncomfortable around me."

A tear fell down her cheek. She weakly stretched a hand toward him, but then let it drop.

"Dr. D."

She let her chin dip as hot tears began trailing down her cheeks. She didn't know what to do. She knew she wanted to go back. He said he missed her. But he also said he would be less familiar. And he believed that trust was impossible. Did he not want to be her friend, after everything? Had her leaving been the final nail in the coffin that held her past assumed loyalty to him?

After a month of fighting her heartsickness, she felt worse than ever.

"I'm sorry," she said. She realized it was probably the first time she had said it properly.

She heard him move to slowly sit on the bed next to her, but with about two feet between them. Even at that, her heart raced... Why? She bit the insides of her cheeks hard as her chest hurt, and she tried to stop her tears.

"Shego?" he asked uncertainly.

_'I ruined everything. I ruined...everything...'_

She swallowed and spoke slowly, ignoring her head for the emotions screaming in her chest. "I liked...being an evil family."

Drakken recoiled slightly, and his eyes widened before slowly narrowing on her in skepticism and confusion.

"You never acted like it," he said, the words a challenge to her statement. Yet she thought she heard a touch of hurt in his voice.

She reached up to wipe her eyes, though she knew it was futile. The tears would just keep coming.

"Sometimes...you don't know what you've got...until you've lost it."

That appeared to give Drakken pause. He looked away as he considered what she'd said, his expression thoughtful. Shego watched and waited. Maybe...there was still a chance.

Finally, Drakken looked back with a silent sigh. He looked her up and down, a cautious curiosity in his eyes.

"Are you all right?"

Shego looked down at herself in her black tank top and shorts. All the bruising from her fall was gone, and except for occasional soreness and tiredness, and a nausea that came too often, she did in fact feel fine.

"I think so."

Drakken looked away again, giving her a brief, suddenly fearful glance. "You know I... Last month... I came out after I heard you scream. And when I saw you fall, I thought... I thought Pistis had killed you... Then I realized...that I don't want you dead, after all."

Light seemed to fill Shego's veins. Was it possible...actually possible...?

But was it worth the risk...

Drakken turned back to face her, his expression sober. "I was... I was wrong, Shego. I'm sorry."

Shego bit her lip, and then leaning across the gap between them she threw her arms around him. She tried to hold back her tears, but when she felt his hands tentatively come to rest on the backs of her shoulders to lightly return the hug they flowed freely.

The pounding in her chest turned into an anxious fluttering. She slowly pulled out of the shallow hug and found him watching her curiously. She ran her fingers back through her hair.

"Sorry, um... Did you have breakfast?" she asked quickly, standing up to walk around him and out of the bedroom. She herself hadn't... She rarely ate breakfast at all. Or lunch, she realized... Eating still made her feel sick, and she knew she had lost some weight. Maybe that was why Drakken had looked her over so curiously.

"No..." he acknowledged, following her into the kitchen.

She opened her fridge and wiped her tears as the light, rapid beating of her heart continued.

"I have yogurts," she suggested, glancing back at him briefly.

"That's fine..." he said, looking a bit perplexed.

She quickly pulled out two of the prepackaged single-serving yogurts and after a moment she set them both on her small kitchen table. She grabbed two plastic spoons, napkins, and two plastic cups and set those on the table also. Last, she took out an unopened jug of chocolate milk and set it on the table.

Drakken raised his brow at her as he sat down. Shego wished her heart would stop racing. She sat down quickly as she felt her head start to spin.

"Oh, I guess I should have asked first...do you want breakfast?"

"This is fine," Drakken said quickly, which she found odd.

Shego bit the inside of her cheek and glanced at the two yogurts. She had grabbed blueberry and strawberry. She pushed the blueberry across the table toward him, and then she picked up the chocolate milk jug and hesitated.

"Chocolate milk?" Drakken asked.

Shego blinked as she stared at the jug in her hand. Why _had_ she grabbed that? Why hadn't he said cocoa-moo? Why did she even buy it to begin with?

She quickly put the jug back in the fridge, and then filled both of their cups with water from the tap before retaking her seat. After setting the cups down, she yanked open her yogurt as her brow furrowed deeply.

What was she doing? She...she couldn't go back... She couldn't trust him again. Could she?

She looked up at the sound of Drakken more slowly opening his yogurt and she watched him dip the spoon in to begin stirring in the fruit from the bottom. Her eyes fell to his unusually straight posture and the soft neck-brace he wore.

"How's your neck?" she heard herself ask.

"It doesn't hurt as much," he said reassuringly. "I'm being careful."

Shego stirred her yogurt vigorously as she watched him. He seemed to be assessing her...and waiting for something. She looked down.

"Shego..."

She looked up.

"Are you going to come back, or not?"

Shego's throat tightened. His expression was even, though he seemed to be holding something back. She thought to his apology only minutes before, and the hesitant way he had returned her hug.

Could it be he was just as uncertain about everything as she was?

Shego sipped from her water, holding the glass tightly.

"What...what would happen...if I did?"

Drakken's brow furrowed lightly. "We would...try to take over the world?"

Shego finally took a spoonful of the yogurt into her mouth as she processed the words. They would just...go back to normal?

"Is that what you've been doing?" she asked.

Drakken swallowed his own spoonful of yogurt and took a drink of water a bit awkwardly with the neck brace. He shook his head very slightly.

"For a week... But after I dismantled Pistis, I've just...been looking for you."

Shego blinked. He'd been looking for her? For almost a month?

Her lips parted as she was about to accept his offer to return, and then she paused. Had his apology been genuine? She set her spoon down and looked at him nervously.

"Drakken..."

He shifted a bit uncomfortably under her sudden attention.

"Tell me about your tattoo."

Drakken's face flushed and he became instantly uncomfortable. She watched him shift again in the chair and then he slowly brought his hand up to point at his chest.

"You mean...?"

She nodded. He sighed through his nose.

"What about it?" he asked, sounding almost sad.

What about it indeed... She had so many questions.

"You...must have drawn it out really well, for the artist to recreate it so accurately."

Drakken's brow furrowed lightly. "I spent over a week drawing it..."

Shego leaned forward with her elbows on the table. "That's amazing that you remembered all the details... I didn't know you could draw that well."

Drakken shrugged and looked away. "I draw blueprints... This was similar."

Shego wondered why this one thing, out of everything else, seemed to bother him so much. Even after a month, and even after he had apparently...decided he wanted things the way they were before, maybe as much as she did... The idea that she knew about the tattoo was embarrassing him.

She took a breath. "Could I look at it again?"

Drakken tensed. His eyes widened on hers in uncertainty and in question.

"I barely got a look at it before, and it looked really good."

Drakken didn't blink or even breathe for several seconds. He just stared at her, seeming almost afraid and trying to read her. But truly all she wanted was to see it. She hoped that whatever was bothering him wouldn't get in the way of his ability to discern her motives.

He finally sighed and looked down. He stood up and started unbuttoning his lab coat. Shego slowly ate another spoonful of yogurt as she watched him, and then stood up when he pulled the coat off and draped it on the back of the chair. He unbuttoned his shirt, and Shego stepped around the table to be in front of him.

He didn't meet her eyes as he undressed from the waist up. He appeared...ashamed. But she didn't understand why.

He draped his shirt over the back of the chair and then carefully pulled off the white tank top he wore underneath, minding the neck brace. Shego's eyes widened on the large tattoo that was distinctly situated over his heart. She took a step closer.

The tattoo was a near-perfect replication of the carved graffiti she'd made in the lair, just as she'd thought. She absently reached a hand forward as if to touch it, but then drew back when he tensed.

"I'm sorry, Shego," he said quietly.

_'He's sorry? For what?'_

"It's really good," she said. She lifted her eyes to his face. He was barely breathing and still watching her with the same guarded look. He appeared almost scared. "Why did you get it?" she finally asked. It was the question that had been burning in her mind since she'd first seen it.

Drakken looked down. His lips parted as he took in a shallow breath, and then he closed his eyes. He didn't speak.

"...Drakken?"

He sat down. "The other inmates... A lot of them were gang members... That's really why I got these other tattoos," he said, pointing to his elbow and toward the one on his back. "They didn't like me very much. I bragged from the first day there that I wasn't going to be in for long. I told them... I told them that you would break me out. They laughed at me the first time you left and didn't take me with you. But I shut out their taunts. I told them you would come. When you didn't, I...got my second tattoo as a distraction," he said, glancing briefly at his elbow.

Shego suddenly felt very, very sick. She reached out blindly for her chair until she'd grasped the back of it, and pulled it over to be across from Drakken and sat down, her eyes never leaving him.

"And since I'm sure you'll ask anyway, I got these," he pointed to the teardrops on his face, "after I tried to kill my cell mate. Big John said I needed this one," Drakken's finger rested over the outline, "and then I told him about the man I killed in self-defense, and he gave me the second one. But...oh, sorry. I told the other inmates all about you... They made fun of me for trusting you. Even more-so because you're a woman. They said women are the least loyal. Some of them said they didn't even trust their own mothers," Drakken continued. His eyes fell to the heart tattoo on his bicep. "When you didn't take me with you the second time, and then you weren't arrested again, the guys...really started bringing the smack-down. You know me, Shego... I was so confident. Too confident..."

Drakken hung his head.

"I didn't listen. I told them I was sure of you. And I already had all the other tattoos, so...so I thought I would prove it to them. Because in prison, tattoos are like their own language. Did you know that?" he asked, glancing at her briefly. "Yes of course you know... Tattoos communicate far more than just what they are. So I decided, I would prove them wrong... I would prove your loyalty with a tattoo. And I talked about your loyalty to me in our years together as I drew the design. I told them...no other super-villain had a side-kick that had stayed on their own. The only ones who do are...like in the gangs. They stay only because of the threat of death... But...the inmates never stopped laughing at me. They kept saying, if you were so loyal then why hadn't you let me out the first time? Or the second time you had been broken out? But I was sure, I told them... I knew you would come for me as soon as you could. And after I got the tattoo I always went to the gym without my shirt. I wanted them all to _see_ that I had someone I could count on, who was going to take me out of that...u-unfriendly place. But...it got worse when Eddie was arrested. Because of course he joined them in bullying me. Just like when we were kids... He said you weren't coming back. That you only cared about yourself. But I...I knew he _had_ to be wrong. They all...finally laughed me out of the yard, and the gym... I couldn't take it anymore. Since I didn't have my gang-posse anymore, I started hanging with the indoor crowd. When Warmonga got me out I thought... I thought you had finally come for me— Oh." Drakken shook himself from his near-trance as he rambled. "I'm sorry. Y-you only wanted to hear about the tattoo."

Shego didn't realize she was crying again until she felt the salty wetness hit the corner of her mouth. She grabbed her napkin off of the table and blew her nose, and then used it to wipe her eyes. She reached for her cup of water, but it was too far away. She noticed her fingers were shaking when reached for it. She sat back in her chair and stared at the intricate tattoo on his chest.

_'I ruined everything...'_

"Don't worry, I...already have an appointment to get it removed."

Her heart was pounding hard within her chest. Too hard. She stood up, but just then her vision began to spin in a large, slow counter-clockwise circle. She felt sick and bit down on the instinct to throw up.

"Shego?"

The swirling vision of his tattoo morphed into the ceiling as she fell backwards as if in slow-motion. She heard a sharp cry, and then felt something soft beneath her back and a slight recoil. Then everything went dark.


	12. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Drakken!" she called, trying not to be too loud. She paused and leaned against the wall as she felt a brief wave of dizziness. She lifted a hand to her forehead.
> 
> Drakken turned and started when he saw her leaning on the wall. He hurried back to her and after a moment, gently set his hand under her elbow to give her some extra support.
> 
> "Shego, I... I'm so sorry."
> 
> She lifted her eyes to his.
> 
> "I didn't mean to— That is, I thought— I thought..."
> 
> The spinning in Shego's vision was clearing, but her heart was still pounding. What was he trying to say? What was about to change now?
> 
> "S-spit it out, Doc," she said shakily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Only one left after this! No warnings this chapter... Thanks to those who have commented! Please continue to give feedback!

** Chapter 11 **

Shego blinked and the dark slowly turned to light. The scenery had changed... She wasn't looking at the ceiling of her kitchen anymore, but the familiar ceiling of her beach house's bedroom.

And then her vision was filled with the large, close image of Drakken's face.

She shuddered and shrank away with a slight gasp of fear. And then she realized...Drakken's expression looked sad, and worried.

"Shego? Are you all right?"

"...What happened?" she asked, although she thought she had a good idea. She watched him cautiously as she tried to take stock of her physical condition. He'd had her helpless. But she wasn't...tied up, or injured, or anything...

"You passed out when you stood up in the kitchen," he said.

Shego realized she could see the black collar and dark blue shoulders of his lab coat within her frame of vision. He had re-dressed in the time she was unconscious.

"How long was I out?" she asked, surprised at how numb she suddenly felt.

"Maybe...five minutes?" Drakken said, sounding a bit relieved.

Shego started to sit up, and Drakken looked nervous.

"Are you sure you... That is, maybe you should lie down for awhile. You just passed out for no reason."

Shego felt the room spin again as she sat in the center of her bed, though not as dizzyingly as it had before. She looked up at Drakken. His voice sounded...so normal. The way she'd always been used to him sounding, before the whole mess began. And he looked hesitant and anxious.

"Mm..." Shego hummed, glancing around the room for anything out of place. Not that she would notice; she hadn't been taking great care of the place. It was just a house... Not a home.

After a cursory glance and not seeing anything amiss, she looked up at Drakken again. He hadn't taken advantage of her incapacitation... As her vision swam slightly she brought a hand to her head and closed her eyes.

He had come to apologize and ask her back. He said he didn't want her dead after all. Why was she still expecting a betrayal?

"Shego...um. Maybe you should see a doctor."

Shego shook her head, but that made the swimming feeling worse. She lay back down almost without realizing it.

"No."

"Why not?" Drakken asked carefully.

"Because...." She trailed off. She had no reason other than not wanting to. Just like when she had forced him to go to see about his neck...

"What if...you have some sort of brain injury, or trauma to your spinal cord from the fall?"

Drakken's fearful words took root in her head. She looked up to see his deeply and genuinely concerned yes.

"Okay."

Drakken released the breath he'd been holding in relief. "Good! I'll drive— Oh, ah...I mean... Would you like to take the hover-car? I could drive you...so you can just rest."

Shego studied him again. He seemed...so much like himself, it was almost unreal after all that had happened before. Was it possible that things could actually go back to normal? After all she had done, and all he had done?

"I want to change into some real clothes first," she said, slowly leaning up on her side to stave off the dizziness.

Drakken blinked and then his face slowly began to color. "Oh. Right, e-excuse..."

He turned and quickly exited the room and closed the door behind him. Shego sat up slowly as the room continued to spin. What if Drakken was right? What if in the month she'd been gone she'd had some injury she couldn't see from her fall, just as he had? And how had it been made worse by her stewing in her emotions instead of treating it?

It was with an annoying slowness that she changed into her green-and-black suit, which she hadn't worn in awhile. She'd been wearing casual clothes when out committing petty theft and larger robberies, since it helped disguise her and she found she was never in the mood to fight off the authorities. She was annoyed and surprised to find her suit was rather ill-fitting, the material floating off of her skin rather than hugging it tightly as she was used to. She must have lost more weight than she thought.

She opened the door and found Drakken standing and fidgeting behind her couch. She held onto the door frame for balance and tried to look natural as the room continued to spin. Her stubborn pride didn't want him to know how much trouble she was having standing up, from the dizziness in her head to the turning of her stomach.

"We can take the hover-car," she said, finding that the words sounded a bit distant.

Drakken assessed her appearance, his expression having lost all its curiousness in favor of concern.

"I parked it in your driveway since you don't have a car. Oh, and...I put those yogurts back in the fridge so they don't spoil."

Shego took a few slow breaths and then started walking briskly toward her front door. She had sat on the bed to change clothes... Walking made the dizziness worse. When she reached the front door she stopped and held onto the frame.

"Do you still have water bottles in the trunk?" she asked without turning around. She genuinely wanted the water, in hopes it would help. But she was also hoping he wouldn't see how much she was struggling.

"Yes... Are you all right?"

She took a slow breath. "Fine," she said, and then she opened the door and hurried out to the hover-car.

It was a great relief to slide into the familiar seat, and she closed her eyes once she had done so. She was confused for a moment when she heard Drakken open the trunk, and then remembered she had asked for water. She opened her eyes to peer down when she heard the bottle being placed in the cup holder, and another for him alongside it.

She glanced up at his concerned and determined face as he started the car and lifted off. She couldn't believe she was trusting him... But he was right. Something was wrong with her. And she wasn't so stubborn and prideful to ignore it. She unscrewed the cap on her water bottle and took a small sip.

"Is there a doctor you already see around here?"

"No... I guess anywhere legitimate is fine."

Shego opened the glove compartment and pulled out a map, but uncharacteristically passed it to Drakken. She couldn't waste any focus on reading the map as she was realizing just how unwell she actually felt. And she knew it was compounded by the sudden fear and uncertainty surrounding his unexpected arrival.

What if his apology and request for her to come back was...actually just a ruse? What if he'd become so good at psychological manipulation that she couldn't see through him anymore? What if he decided to use her embarrassingly transparent emotions against her and torture her further?

Or what if he truly did want everything to go back to normal?

"Is this all right?" Drakken pointed to a hospital symbol on the map. She squinted at it. It was close by; less than five minutes by hover-car.

"Yeah, sure," she said, taking another sip of the water.

As the hover-car zipped through the skies she found herself gradually feeling better. She tried to watch Drakken without making it obvious she was looking at him. But she was starting to realize that ever since his arrival at her beach house, he'd been the most normal she'd seen him since before prison.

 _'Not that he's normal...'_ she thought with an affectionate smirk. Then her face fell.

That brief flash of familiarity she'd felt only reminded her of what she'd lost and increased the pain of wondering if she could truly get it back, or if it was all too late.

The hover-car landed within five minutes as she'd thought, taking up two spaces of the hospital parking lot. Drakken climbed out carefully, minding his neck for which she was grateful, and she moved even more slowly. She was determined to make it under her own power and not have to be helped by him or anyone else.

Thankfully, walking slowly and keeping her eyes fixed on the single point of the doors helped and they were soon inside. It was she this time filling out the annoying paperwork that was customary before any doctor's visit, and feeling a bit odd with Drakken sitting alert and attentive next to her like a protector. She had never needed protecting from anyone but herself.

As they waited Shego found herself avoiding looking at Drakken, and also wanting to. She wanted to know how his neck was. But most of all she wanted to know...if all he had said was genuine.

She replayed their conversation from the time he had stood over her on the beach, searching his manner and words for any falsehoods. But...he had been honest with her before, even when he was angry. He had admitted to wanting to kill her without even any prompting. He just...wasn't the sort to lie. He was too interested in sharing what he actually thought about things to lie.

She thought about the tattoo on his chest, and his explanation for getting it. And while the sick feeling in her stomach and a headache began building anew, she understood why he had hidden it. It was another sign of his failure. He...had been wrong about her. And whenever he saw it in a mirror, he would remember everything associated with it: the arguments with others about her loyalty, the effort to draw the design, the pain of actually having it inked into his skin...

And her betrayal.

That was the thought causing her head to spin when she was finally called in to see the doctor. When she stood up to leave, she suddenly realized Drakken wasn't coming with her. She looked back at him, and he raised his brow in question. Her brow furrowed as she turned back to go into the doctor's office. Why _would_ he go with her... There was no reason for him to.

Shego barely paid attention when the nurse took her temperature and blood pressure. She was seated in the exam room for only a few minutes before a bland-faced doctor stepped in and introduced himself as Dr. Wong. She went through the routine of answering the same questions aloud as she had on the initial questionnaire, distracted by the pain in her chest over the way she had completely accidentally ruined her life. And probably Drakken's too.

She didn't notice until the doctor cleared his throat that he had been frowning more with every answer she gave. She finally focused on his stern yet concerned gaze. He glanced down at her questionnaire on the clipboard across his knee and continued.

"For your job you put self-employed."

"Yes..." Shego answered, wondering what that mattered.

"What kind of work do you do?"

Shego thought quickly. She had forgotten to make something up for that one. "Fitness instructor."

The doctor's brow rose and he studied her for a moment. "Ma'am...did you answer this questionnaire honestly?"

Shego's brow rose. Medically, she had. She only changed the things she always changed, such as her name.

"Yes..."

The doctor studied her again. Shego felt herself growing upset.

"What?"

"Ma'am... I think we should run some blood tests on you."

Shego's brow rose. All he had done was ask basic questions, and he already thought something was wrong with her?

"Okay."

"I'll have the nurse come in and draw blood. The lab isn't busy, so we can have the results very soon. Also, ma'am...is there someone here with you today?"

Shego's stomach turned and her chest constricted. "Yes," she answered.

"Is it you someone you would be comfortable having in the room while we continue?"

Her heart began to pound in worry. They hadn't even done the blood tests yet. She had only fainted... What did the doctor think was wrong?

"Yes..." she said after a moment's hesitation. But she didn't really know... Did she want Drakken there if something was horribly wrong with her? What if he had been lying and still wanted her dead? Her head was too mixed up to decide. Maybe it was better having him there...

The doctor gave her a calculating look.

"I'll send the nurse in to take your blood," the doctor said, rising and taking the questionnaire with him. Shego had hoped he would leave it. She wondered what she must have mis-marked in her distraction to give the doctor such pause.

About a minute passed, and then a nurse came in to draw her blood. Just as the process was finishing there was a slight knock at the door. Shego watched as Drakken stepped in cautiously, his expression concerned.

"Sorry, they...told me to come in."

"That's fine," said the nurse. "I'm all done here. The doctor will be back shortly."

The nurse left and Drakken stepped up next to Shego as she put her jacket back on, having removed it to have her blood drawn.

"What's wrong?" Drakken asked in a worried hush.

"I don't know," Shego said. "I must have made a mistake on the questionnaire."

Drakken's brow knitted in thought. "Maybe they know who we are and they're calling the police."

Shego shook her head. "I don't think that's it."

The door opened then to admit Dr. Wong. The bland-looking man's eyes suddenly became sharp as he gave Drakken a long, critical look.

"Hello. And you are?"

"...Drew," he answered after a moment, shaking the doctor's hand. Shego knew that using his name was his least favorite part of having to see legitimate doctors.

"And how do you know the patient?"

"I'm her..."

Drakken paused and looked down at the same time Shego looked up at him. Shego realized then that Drakken didn't know she'd put 'self-employed' on her form. She also noted that Drakken didn't seem to have any idea how to answer.

_'Of course he doesn't, you haven't said you'll go back...'_

"...I'm an old friend," Drakken finally said, his eyes asking if the answer was okay. Shego tried to communicate that it was, though she was completely shocked by it. Despite everything...was that what he thought of her?

"May I ask about your neck?" the doctor said, eyeing Drakken's neck brace.

"Oh. I...fell," he said.

The corner of the doctor's mouth twitched. "Were you treated here?"

"No, it was—" He stopped and looked at Shego. He didn't remember. Shego looked at the doctor and supplied the information about the hospital and the specialist Drakken had seen.

"Oh, that's quite a ways from here."

"They were recommended by his chiropractor," Shego continued, not expecting Drakken to remember that either.

The doctor looked between them. "What led you to choose our facility today?"

Drakken and Shego spoke at once.

"It was the closest."

"It's close to my house."

The doctor looked between them again, his eyes settling on Drakken. "You live nearby?"

Drakken glanced at Shego, his brow furrowing in question. "Ah...I don't."

The doctor eyed them again, his frown deepening slightly. Shego bit the inside of her cheek nervously. Why was the doctor so interested in Drakken? Maybe they _were_ going to have to flee the authorities...

"I was visiting her this morning..." Drakken said almost absently.

The doctor's eyes centered on Drakken for a long moment. It must have been something about the words, or the way Drakken had said them, because the man's frown diminished slightly. The doctor looked back to Shego.

"I wanted to ask you about some of the things you put in the questionnaire," the doctor said, holding it up.

Shego bit the inside of her cheek again. She hoped whatever mistake she'd made, it wasn't too embarrassing. She wondered why the doctor had wanted Drakken to come in...

"You wrote that you exercise an average of two hours each day?"

Shego realized suddenly that all of her answers had been based on her usual routine, and not the pattern of laziness she had fallen into in her month away. A lot of things were bound to be wrong.

"Oh, that's...what I usually do. But I've...been on vacation. Sorry," she amended, trying to act casual.

The doctor considered her words for what seemed to be a long time. "You also marked your weight as 130 pounds, but when the nurse weighed you you came in at only 114."

Shego's eyes widened. Next to her, Drakken gasped softly. She fought the urge to look at the way she knew her suit wasn't fitting properly. She also ignored the feeling of Drakken staring at her.

"I, uh...haven't weighed myself in awhile," she said. It was true enough.

The doctor considered her again, and looked over at Drakken and seemed to assess him as well for some reason. The turmoil Shego had been feeling about Drakken's arrival faded to the back of her mind in light of the doctor's strange behavior. She felt anger rising at his obvious prevarication about whatever was wrong with her, but she swallowed it down. She might get better information through listening to him as opposed to demanding he get on with it, like she wanted.

"When was your last meal?"

Shego thought briefly. "This morning."

Drakken looked down at her. "You had two spoonfuls of yogurt!"

Shego was startled by his sudden outburst. She looked up at him, and then back to the doctor, who was studying Drakken again. The doctor's frown had returned as he watched Drakken, but as the man looked back at her his gaze became sharp and calculating.

"What about before this morning? What did you eat and when?" the doctor asked.

Shego thought back.

"Um..." After a long moment she turned and narrowed her eyes at Drakken. "I can't think when you're staring at me like that!"

"Why haven't you been eating!?" he retorted.

The doctor cleared his throat and they both looked at him. Shego was surprised when the doctor then addressed Drakken.

"You said you were visiting her. Can I ask about what happened this morning?"

Shego's eyes finally narrowed. "I already told you."

"Your friend can tell me things you weren't aware of," the doctor explained.

The doctor and Shego both looked at Drakken, whose brow rose.

"Oh, we...we had just started breakfast. Um...we had already been talking for about ten minutes before that. And then she stood up from the table and just...passed out. She woke up after a little less than five minutes."

"What were you talking about?"

Drakken's jaw clamped shut. His eyes darted to Shego.

Shego's stomach turned. She had told the doctor it was just chit-chat when she fainted.

"What does that matter?" Drakken asked.

"If you were talking about something stressful, it could have affected her."

Drakken looked down at Shego, and she looked up and tried to communicate with her eyes to be casual without giving anything away to the doctor. It wasn't that it really mattered, it was just...she didn't want the doctor to think she had lied on purpose. He clearly already suspected she had regarding the other questions.

Drakken took a breath. "We were just talking about a tattoo I have," he answered.

Shego wondered if the doctor would pry about that, or accept it in the realm of 'chit-chat.'

"Ma'am..." They both looked at the doctor. "I see you left the mental health portion of the questionnaire blank, but I wanted to go over it with you..."

Shego's throat constricted and her heart raced in sudden anger. "I'm not...! I don't have some sort of—"

She stopped short as she realized...with everything that had happened, and the way she'd been thinking and feeling for so many weeks now... It...kind of made sense. Her mind flew back to her post-graduate studies, and all she had learned about the various mental health problems a person could have and the various traits that were exhibited.

"Have you had difficulty sleeping?" the doctor asked, his pen poised at the first of many questions on the list.

Shego nodded to affirm, and then shook her head in irritation. "You're right, I must be... I studied all this in college. I just didn't realize... That's it. That's what's wrong with me."

"Does she need medication?"

Shego jumped slightly. She had almost forgotten Drakken was there. She looked up to find him looking very anxious and worried.

The doctor had moved his pen to the next question. "After we get through this I'll give her a referral to the psychiatric department. They'll make any diagnosis and determine necessary treatment options."

A knock at the door interrupted them, and the nurse returned to announce that the blood tests had been processed. The doctor excused himself with the promise to return momentarily after he had looked at the results.

Shego blinked into the sterile environment of the hospital room. In a way she felt...better, about her situation. Her thoughts having been so complicated, her emotions so twisted, and her inability to resolve them...now made sense. Of _course_ she had developed some sort of trauma-related problem.

She wanted to believe that she could just...get over it. But she hadn't so far. Would having a diagnosis and knowing what was truly wrong help?

She heard a soft thud behind her, and then...

"Ow."

She turned around to see Drakken rubbing the back of his neck under his brace, his forehead resting against the wall. A rush of emotions came over her, spinning too quickly for her mind to settle on any one of them. She felt the familiar dizziness as she stared at him and mentally debated against laying down on the small hospital exam table.

Still rubbing his neck, Drakken turned to face her. The worried expression in his eyes grew darker and more anxious.

"This is my fault..." he said.

Shego wasn't sure what to say.

A brief knock at the door heralded the doctor's return, and the man entered holding a second set of papers. Drakken stepped out of the man's way, and then positioned himself against the wall by the door. Shego turned back to face the doctor as he retook his seat.

"I do have good news from your blood tests results. You're in fair health, other than being underweight, malnourished, and dehydrated. Can we continue going through these questions?"

Shego nodded, and for the next several minutes answered the various questions about depression, suicidal thoughts, abuse, and other mental health topics. It didn't escape her notice that the doctor glanced at Drakken more than once when the questions about abuse were asked.

It fit, actually... Some of the way Drakken had treated her the month before.

More than anything, Shego just wanted to get away. She didn't know where she wanted to go, but she wanted to be anywhere but in that room having her mind and emotions picked apart. Especially in front of Drakken. What if...he used the information against her somehow...

She started in surprise at her own thoughts. He'd just told her, less than an hour ago... He didn't want her dead after all. He'd apologized to her and wanted her back.

Right?

"Ma'am? Ma'am?"

Shego was startled again as she looked up and found the doctor lightly waving his hand a few inches in front of her face to get her attention. She swallowed anxiously.

"S-sorry," she said.

The doctor leaned back in his chair, his frown quite deep.

"I'm writing you a referral to our psychiatric department. I don't know if they'll have an opening today, but I would like to admit you to the ER and get you on some fluids to help with the dehydration and to get some nutrients in you."

A small and unremarkable metallic sound from behind her drew Shego's attention. She turned to see Drakken turning the door handle and pulling the door open slowly. She was stunned to see his eyes wide and almost fearful.

Shego's brow furrowed.

"Sir, I understand that you drove the patient. If you need to leave we can see that she gets transportation back home if she's released tonight."

Drakken blinked. When he spoke, the words were so soft that Shego could barely hear him.

"I ruined everything..."

Shego's eyes widened. Drakken nodded distractedly to the doctor to show he'd heard, and then disappeared through the door.

"Did he say he—"

Shego stood up abruptly and turned toward the door. "I, uh, I need to talk to him about..." she trailed off in her fumbling for an excuse as she hurried after Drakken.

Her heart pounded as she took a moment to remember the turns and then made her way back to the waiting room. Drakken wasn't there, so she moved to the larger halls of the hospital and looked down the way they had come. Drakken was several paces ahead of her, moving briskly toward the exit.

"Drakken!" she called, trying not to be too loud. She paused and leaned against the wall as she felt a brief wave of dizziness. She lifted a hand to her forehead.

Drakken turned and started when he saw her leaning on the wall. He hurried back to her and after a moment, gently set his hand under her elbow to give her some extra support.

"Shego, I... I'm so sorry."

She lifted her eyes to his.

"I didn't mean to— That is, I thought— I thought..."

The spinning in Shego's vision was clearing, but her heart was still pounding. What was he trying to say? What was about to change now?

"S-spit it out, Doc," she said shakily.

His gaze fell and he stared at a point somewhere below her chin. "It's not... You left me in prison, Shego!" he said sadly, his eyes rising to meet hers, pleading and desperate for her understanding. "You betrayed me. You left me to die, and I was... I... It hurt. Because I thought we... I thought we were friends. You were...my only friend, Shego! So I wanted revenge, but... I was wrong. I was wrong about everything! Don't come back, please...forget I even asked. Take care of yourself and believe me...I'm sorry, I... I'm so sorry."

He turned on his heel and strode toward the exit.

Shego leaned on the wall and stared at him as he left, her head still spinning a bit. She was about to push off and walk after him when she heard footsteps right behind her. She turned to see Dr. Wong hovering just over her shoulder, his characteristic frown on his face as he also watched Drakken go.

"Get your...driving arrangements sorted out?" he asked.

Shego swallowed and nodded. How much was the doctor buying, and how much wasn't he...?

_'Ugh, what does it matter!'_

"If you'll come with me, I can have you admitted through the ER and we'll get you on some fluids," he said, gesturing down the hall. "Then I'll write you that referral to the psychiatric department."

Shego stared at his open hand that gestured deeper into the hospital. She hadn't been in a hospital of her own free will since she was...a hero. She'd managed on her own as a villain, except for after the tower... But that hadn't been her choice.

Now, it was. She knew she wasn't well... But what were the risks and ramifications? Would someone recognize her and call the police immediately? If she was arrested, what would happen then... And of greater concern, if she allowed herself to be admitted as a psychiatric patient...she wouldn't be allowed to leave.

"Ma'am?" the doctor said.

Shego looked at his hand, and then up to his face. She took a deep breath.


	13. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drakken's building rage stopped in a choke as he suddenly bent over the table. Shego heard a sniffle and watched his shoulders heave once...twice...three times. Then his head turned and he seemed to notice something. He reached out and picked something off the table and turned around.
> 
> It was the ray gun. Shego's eyes widened and she pushed herself more firmly into the stone at her back. Drakken's tear-stained face was set in determination.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: The final chapter! Thank you so much for reading all the way through! I hope you enjoy!

**Chapter 12**

Shego couldn't give up her freedom.

_'Not yet...'_

That's what she kept telling herself as she sped on her hover-board back to the Caribbean lair. Before leaving her beach house she had eaten the two open yogurts and drunk a lot of water, hoping to gather some strength. Her legs shook a little piloting the heavy craft, but being aware of her present weakness caused her to take more care. As a result she didn't fly nearly as fast as she usually would, and the extra travel time gave her time to think.

She began running over recent events in her mind, listing them in order and analyzing them as she went. Drakken had spent nearly a month searching for her... He had come to her to apologize, and to ask her to come back. He hadn't showed any malice. When she'd fainted he'd had the opportunity to harm her if it was his true intent, but he hadn't. He'd helped her to a doctor...as she had previously done for him. And while there he had seemed to realize the error of his ways and appeared truly, truly sorry for his actions.

Shego was shocked to discover...she was inclined to believe him. After the depth of hurt he had shown at her previous betrayal, for him to open himself up to trusting her again was almost unbelievable. In fact, she may have still been trapped at the hospital if it hadn't been for his abrupt departure and apparent revelation of his mistakes.

Shego's eyes widened suddenly as she realized something else... Drakken _had_ trusted her. He'd let her give him a massage, several times. He'd allowed her to walk on his back. And before ever mentioning his intent to kill her, he'd told her to leave. He'd told her to leave multiple times and had even packed her belongings. Each time Pistis had her at its mercy, he stopped it. He never pulled the trigger of the ray gun. And at the very beginning, when he had lunged for her throat with fingers outstretched...he had never made contact. He could have killed her at any time... But instead he kept demanding that she leave.

Could it be that he'd never truly wanted her dead? That it was just the hurt of the betrayal coming out in an anger he didn't know how to manage?

Shego felt dizzy as she thought about it. She was glad her hover-board had auto-pilot.

When the lair finally came into focus, a dark and formidable spire rising up out of the sparkling blue, she was surprised not to feel fear. She did feel a great weight... Something akin to loss. But despite everything...hope had risen within her. She _had_ to know... Before she made any decisions about what to do next, she had to know if it was possible for things to go back to normal.

Working with Drakken had become her whole life. But she still had the foreboding thought that even with the recent signs of hope, it could all fall apart... That she would somehow say the wrong thing, and he would slip back into a murderous rage...

It was why she had decided to confront him. She would ask him point-blank about...everything. And any answer he gave that wasn't completely and wholly the Drakken she knew and remembered...would be her sign that it was over. She couldn't go on torturing herself over a friendship that may be impossible to save.

And then...then, if it really was impossible...she would go back to the hospital. Because trying to get by on her own wasn't working.

She slowed her approach long before she was near to landing, taking in the view of the ancient volcanic core.

_'Home...'_

The thought sent her stomach turning again, but still she watched out for traps or hidden cyborgs that might try to bar her entrance. After landing next to the hover-car she began walking the familiar walk, across the balcony and into the cool lair with its red stone walls.

She passed through the living room, the kitchen, and then paused to glance at the hallway that led to her bedroom. She sighed as she stared down the rough-hewn passageway. It didn't feel like the last time she would be walking through the lair...

She continued through the dimly-lit halls until she reached the closed door of the lab. Drakken was most likely inside. If not, she would check his room. She put in the code to unlock the door.

As it slid open, a loud _clang_ sounded from somewhere in the lab and Shego jumped slightly. She stepped inside and watched as a dismembered metallic robot arm fell to the ground next to the far wall. In front of the workbench that was surrounded by precision lasers mounted to the ceiling, Drakken was pacing. There were wires and scraps of metal and tools scattered all around him on the bench and over the floor, along with various recognizable humanoid metallic body parts.

_Pistis._

"Ow! Stupid...titanium..." Drakken grumbled. He hadn't noticed Shego's entrance. She stood just inside the open door and stared at him, noting the deep frown on his face as he paused to lean against the workbench, lifting his left foot to rub with his hand. "Worthless! Completely worthless!"

Shego crossed her arms and watched in curiosity as Drakken stalked across the lair to where the titanium arm had fallen. He picked it up and strode back to the mass of debris of what had formerly been the deadly cyborg. Why did he think it had been useless? Unless...because it had failed to kill her?

"Just like everyone always said!" Drakken shouted. His voice echoed in the high-ceilinged chamber.

Shego's eyes slowly widened. She took a quiet step forward right when Drakken used the metal arm to hit a large pile of debris off of the workbench. Wires, nuts, and metal scraps clattered loudly across the floor and masked the sound of the door closing. She took a few steps to the side and stood back against the wall so the door wouldn't detect her and open automatically.

"Can't do anything right..." Drakken's shout diminished to a grumble. "What kind of friend are you..."

Shego slowly sank down until she was seated against the stone wall and brought her knees up toward her chest, letting her forearms rest carelessly across them as she listened. Was Drakken angry...with himself?

"Plot to kill your best friend... Oh yes, _that's_ a brilliant plan! Build a giant invulnerable cyborg that's almost too smart for _you_ to destroy!" Drakken continued. He paused and looked down to where Pistis's head lay on the floor in front of him, the once-menacing eyes lifeless and dark. He lifted his left foot, considered, and then set it down and drew back with his right. He kicked the head powerfully and it sailed low over the ground and hit the wall with a _clang_ , dropping and spinning around on one of its rounded sides like a lopsided top. Drakken meanwhile howled in pain and clutched his right foot in both hands and hopped around amid the debris. He wasn't watching where he hopped and slipped on some of the bolts that were scattered over the floor. His feet went up over his head and he landed on his back, crying out again as his face twisted in pain. His hands flew to the back of his neck to feel beneath the brace.

Shego started and reached forward instinctively, but after a moment she let her arm fall and simply watched the spectacle, his words ringing in her mind.

_'Best friend? Best friend? He tried to kill me...'_

"Demand she leave without explaining anything... Try to kill her repeatedly... Oh yes, genius. That's Jim-crackin' dandy!" Drakken continued as he got up on his knees amid the debris, his voice oscillating between a mutter and a shout with every other breath. "Don't explain yourself, or even _consider_ that maybe she might have had a valid reason for leaving. Not that she needed one... She never owed you her friendship. She can do what she wants, you...you dolt! Idiot! And just _ignore_ the fact that she came back and apologized. She _kept_ coming back! Went along with that...ridiculous idea of killing Kim Possible... Still not enough for _you_ though, Doctor Hold-A-Grudge."

Drakken had made it back to his feet and had resumed pacing through the mess, limping now and favoring his right foot as he continued holding his neck beneath the brace. Shego stared at him. She studied his expression, angry in a way she had never seen. And she'd seen more than her fair share of his anger. But now he looked near to tears and like it was a struggle for him not to cry with each passing second.

"And what did it get you? Drove away your best friend... Scared her into a mental illness with your stupid...unfounded...revenge," Drakken muttered, kicking aside a debris pile with less force as he paced. "She's sick now... _You_ made her sick... She could have died out there alone... Could have...she might still... You— worthless piece of—!"

Drakken's building rage stopped in a choke as he suddenly bent over the table. Shego heard a sniffle and watched his shoulders heave once...twice...three times. Then his head turned and he seemed to notice something. He reached out and picked something off the table and turned around.

It was the ray gun. Shego's eyes widened and she pushed herself more firmly into the stone at her back. Drakken's tear-stained face was set in determination. He pressed a few controls on the gun and it began emitting a high-pitched hum.

Shego's brow furrowed. It hadn't done that before.

Drakken turned and pointed the ray gun toward the far wall. Shego followed the direction of his aim and her eyes found the target just as Drakken fired. The head of Pistis glowed red for a moment and then disintegrated into nothing.

Shego's lips parted in a silent gasp. He had pointed that gun at her... Something that could do _that?_ But she hadn't heard it make that sound before... Maybe it had different settings of severity. Did that mean he'd been threatening her with it without...really intending to kill her? A cruel trick?

With a furious snarl, Drakken turned and began firing at every piece of debris that surrounded him, both near and far. Shego watched arms, legs, and internal workings glow red and vanish until all that was left of the dismantled cyborg were a few stray wires and bolts. Drakken dropped the ray gun back on the bench and let out a loud sound, something between a groan and a cry of pain. He opened a far drawer and took out a hammer. His feral cries continued as he began smashing the ray gun, pieces flying off the bench in all directions at high speeds until it was unrecognizable, but he kept hitting it over and over. All that was left when Drakken finally dropped the hammer was a sparking, popping mess of wires.

Drakken leaned over the workbench again, his shoulders heaving. He began to mumble something and Shego had to strain to hear his words.

"Call Jack Hench and fire up the Badness Meter... I've got a new level for him... S-So evil, you destroy both...your life, and the life of your only friend..." He paused, and Shego heard him sniffle. He turned around and leaned his back against the edge of the bench, tilting his head up toward the ceiling. "Oh, Shego..."

Shego started, but then realized Drakken was still talking to himself. He grabbed his head in both hands, and his expression was one of agony. He slowly sat down on the ground and leaned against the workbench as he began to cry. Shego remained silent and staring, listening to the familiar yet unfamiliar sounds. She had never...really heard him cry before, excepting the dramatics that were always just a display.

These tears...were real. She realized after several minutes that her face was wet too.

"Shego... What have I done... I'm so sorry... Please be all right! Please, be... I'm so sorry..."

Shego carefully pushed herself to her feet. Her heart was pounding. She took several measured breaths and then wiped the tears from her cheeks.

She wasn't afraid anymore... Not of him. But she was afraid of the future. Despite everything, she still...just wanted to be with him. She wanted her life back. But what would happen if she made that choice?

Drakken's tears showed no signs of stopping, and Shego leaned against the wall watching him cry for several more minutes before gathering her courage to move. She side-stepped in front of the door so it slid open with her presence. At the sound, Drakken's head lifted in astonishment.

"Shego!" he gasped softly. He scrambled to his feet as she took slow steps toward him, but he ran to meet her. He stopped short, about five feet in front of her. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at the hospital getting treated, so you...so you can get better and...move on with your life."

Shego kept walking until she was right in front of him. His eyes were wide with worry and surprise. He took a step back.

"I decided..." Shego began quietly, but her voice was strong, "that I want to stay with you."

As the words left her lips she felt a slight lessening of the weight that was on her chest. She meant it. After over a month, finally, she felt resolved. All that was left was...to see if staying would be possible.

Drakken stepped closer and lifted his hands as if to reach for her shoulders, but then he pulled back in seeming alarm at himself.

"You want...? No, no. You need to go back and...and get help for yourself. You can't come back here. Not after what I...after everything I..."

His eyes were so anguished. His face was still wet with tears that he made no attempt to hide. Shego took a small step closer.

"Doc..." she said softly, heart still pounding, "I want to stay with you."

Drakken looked near to breaking down and struggled to school his emotions.

"Shego, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I was...I was hurt, but you didn't deserve...any of what I did," he said, his eyes pleading. He suddenly reached out and took one of her hands in both of his, holding her fingers and gently rubbing the back of her hand. "I'm so...so sorry."

"I know," Shego said, her voice starting to shake. Tears were threatening to fall from her eyes again. "I... I forgive you, Dr. D."

His eyes widened. He stared at her in disbelief. She pulled her hand from his and lifted her shaking arms, opening them to him.

"Oh... Shego," Drakken said desperately, slowly gathering her into a hug. It wasn't like any hug he had given her before, impulsive or mechanical. This hug was gentle. He held her securely against his chest, his arms surrounding her protectively and one hand cradling her head like she were made of glass. She rested her forearms and fists on his chest and lay her head on his shoulder. She felt a tear fall from his chin and land on her cheek. "I'm so sorry," he repeated, his voice low and hoarse.

"I'm sorry too," she said quietly. "I shouldn't have—"

"No! No, Shego, this is my fault," Drakken said, pulling back slightly to look down at her. "I shouldn't have assumed—"

"Dr. D.," she cut him off, and then spoke evenly. "I shouldn't have left you. I'm sorry."

He stared down into her eyes. It was finally...finally, just him. There was no hidden anger or ulterior motive within his dark gaze as he searched her face. And the hope that had churned within her like a raging sea, ebbing and flowing for weeks, finally rose in a definitive wave and crashed over the shores of her mind and heart.

Drakken shook his head faintly, disbelieving and amazed, his eyes transfixed on hers.

"Shego..." he said.

He held her even closer, and she let her head rest against his shoulder again. She could feel the slight shaking of his frame as his tears fell, and she wondered if he could feel her shaking too. There was a deep, deep caring in his voice, like she'd never heard from him before.

After nearly two months of fear, she was sure of him again.

Shego's pounding heart calmed as nearly a minute passed and she took in the feel of his leather coat against her cheek. Drakken suddenly seemed to realize where they were as she felt him stiffen and then slowly and carefully pull out of the hug. She found herself reluctant to leave his arms.

"Um. W-what now?" he asked nervously as he put nearly two feet of space between them, his eyes wide and uncertain. But his hand drifted down her arm to find her hand, and he held it like a lifeline. And then again, after a few moments of staring at where their gloved hands met, he released her and took three steps back in a slightly shocked recoil.

Shego thought for a minute.

"How...about dinner?"

* * *

**Epilogue **

At first, they avoided each other. Cautious 'hello's' and asking how the other was doing were their only conversation when they chanced to pass each other in the kitchen, Drakken always keeping more than a respectful distance from her. Though Shego could tell, he wanted to be nearer to her. It was his determination to stay away that helped build her confidence.

As the weeks passed in the lair, the nervous looks turned into cautious trust. Kitchen passings became sit-down dinners, with uncertain glances shared across the table. And when Shego returned to the lab one day, finding it bare, she broke the silence and asked what he was working on. It was there in the lab, where their friendship had first begun, that conversation started to return.

Eating didn't make Shego sick anymore. And the cloud over her thoughts and the weight on her mind and emotions began to lessen as things slowly returned to normal. It was she who suggested they watch a movie together after about a month had passed, and she watched as the burden he carried seemed to visibly lift off of him when they had chuckled at the same joke on the screen. The cautious glances became careful smiles, and the uncertain looks passed across the dinner table or the sofa gradually became more confident.

Drakken began scheming again, and as a new change to their dynamic, he began consulting her in detail about his plans. He second-guessed himself more than he used to, and it always ended with his asking for her opinion. Each and every time, he accepted her word with a thoughtful nod and without argument. It was a very curious change.

Another change that Shego initially found a relief, but after two months a bit perplexing, was how he diligently kept his distance from her, seeming anxious even when things felt calm and right. Save their hug of reconciliation, he'd barely come within five feet of her since her return and would always step back if she approached him.

At first Shego found herself worrying if his distance was due to some expectation that she would betray him again. But later she understood that it was him worrying about hurting or scaring her. That realization caused a strange unknown feeling in her heart, and it reminded her of her promise, though made under duress, to protect him. It seemed he'd made the same promise to himself about her, and was proving it daily through his distance and professionalism.

Drakken's neck healed, and Shego went with him the day he got his last X-ray. She felt more of the weight on her mind and emotions lift when she saw his relief at the doctor's pronouncement that he was going to be fine. Drakken smiled more after that day, and the former ramblings to her of his idle thoughts and schemes made a shockingly rapid return. Shego found herself smiling more too.

Some mornings when she entered the lab, Drakken's behavior was so normal she could have imagined that the whole horrible affair had been a dream. She could almost convince herself of it, but for one thing: the two tear-drop tattoos on his face let her know that it had all been excruciatingly real. And sometimes when she saw the telltale markings her mind brought her back to the most horrible of moments: his attempt to strangle her, Pistis standing over her, and his cold request of where to mail her belongings. They came both as waking nightmares, and on particularly bad days she didn't even dare to attempt sleep at night for fear of the terrifying visions.

Over time, a routine was developed on those nights. It had happened by accident, and she ended up almost tolerant of the cause since she was so grateful for the result. It had started with her simply escaping her nightmares for the mindlessness of TV. But all too often, she found Drakken there as well... She never asked why, but she speculated he was awake for the same reasons she was.

Those nights turned into the pair of them sitting on the sofa, sometimes only inches apart (the only time he'd come near her), eating popcorn and watching whatever sitcom re-runs or lame product infomercials happened to be playing. They rarely spoke, except to sometimes ask if the other wanted more popcorn. It was an understanding, that they were both awake fighting their demons and weren't there to talk, so they didn't.

However she did often watch him, curling into a corner of the couch and letting him have all the popcorn as the blue light of the screen flickered and flashed over his gaunt features and dark eyes. She got to see him there, fully himself as he munched their shared snacks and muttered at the TV, not at all the deranged person who had pointed a ray gun in her face as she cowered in fear. And seeing him as himself was the greater reassurance. The night terrors abated with time.

But the day her fears finally left for good, was the day he demonstrated without words that he understood her struggles. He had returned to the lair after an excursion to places unknown, and when he passed her in the kitchen she'd let out an audible gasp.

The tattoos on his face were gone. Professionally removed.

She'd begun questioning him, but he never let her finish the sentence. He explained that he had figured out that the tattoos were a triggering symbol for her, and that he had appointments to get all of them removed one-by-one, so if by chance she ever saw him shirtless again there would be no visual reminder of what he had put her through.

 _"Keep the chest tattoo,"_ she had told him after thinking about it for a few days. _"I'm gonna be worthy of why you put it there, someday."_

Drakken had been speechless. And somewhat worried, which she didn't understand. He continued keeping his distance from her as he had over the months, but otherwise...things continued normally between them. Evil as usual.

Shego wasn't afraid anymore, and Drakken's confidence gradually returned. The idle and halfhearted plotting he had been doing grew again into plans for world domination. Shego didn't find the same thrill in the quest for destruction and fame that she used to, but she was content to do as he wished whenever he set his eyes upon her to share in a devious smile.

While their unsteady friendship confused her, and very obviously him as well, it was something she still found she needed. Despite everything, and the conversations she had with herself about why she came back...it always came to that. For some reason, she needed him. And while the memories of the ordeal surfaced frequently...she had her life back. She had her home back.

The day she knew it for sure was the third day she had joined Drakken on his new and fully-developed plot. Per usual, he had rambled in broken sentences rather than explain it in detail, but she had caught something about moving the continents. The actual plan was neither here nor there, where she was concerned. It was the first big one, months now after their long efforts to reconcile, and as ready as she thought she was for it, she discovered she wasn't.

She had already had one chance to fight Kim Possible on the first day out, and while she put on her usual airs for the teen the fight had made her anxious. But Drakken hadn't noticed, fully immersed in his plot. She had been grateful the second time out that the teen brat had been wearing a ridiculous space suit rather than her usual sporty attire. The laughter had been good for her, and put her more at ease in fighting the teen who had in essence helped bring her and Drakken back together while at the same time was the catalyst for them being torn apart. She couldn't decide anymore how she felt about the cheerleader.

But that third day at the museum, when the sound of metal and the sight of what was apparently a giant robot suddenly filled her vision, was when everything finally changed.

Drakken recoiled from the new enemy, gasping in fright. Shego wanted to do the same as a memory of white eyes assaulted her, but instead she took a firm stance.

 _'Protect him!'_ her mind cried out her promise. She lunged to the side and threw her arm out in front of her friend, ready for anything. And that was when they had both really looked.

Kim Possible, clad in a suit so absurd it looked like something out of a kids' cartoon, was the only threat standing before him.

Shego's eyes met Drakken's. Then they burst into a laughter so long and hard that neither could keep their feet. A few jibes traded with the teen and a green blast that left their nemesis pinned to the ceiling by her own costume renewed their humor, and they doubled over again. Their shared amusement was like a release for Shego as she looked at his giddy face through tears of mirth.

They paid the teen no mind when they finally strolled leisurely back to the waiting hover-car, their laughter continuing all the while. And then their eyes met again, across the control console as Drakken started the vehicle.

In his eyes she saw only him. And she knew...she was showing him only her. And then their cathartic laughter continued, much more than mocking of the teen in their mind. The torment they had put each other through had been successfully relegated to the past. They could move forward. And maybe...better than before.

Drakken didn't lift off until he had gained control of his laughter, and as he did Shego leaned back in the seat and gazed at him, eyeing the spot next to his eye were the tear drop tattoos used to be. She hadn't asked about the others since he'd told her he was getting them removed, but...she really did hope he had kept the chest tattoo.

"Where to next, Doc?" she asked, unable to wipe the smile from her face.

He glanced at her confidently. "After securing this back at the lair," he said, tossing the stolen item from the museum, "we go to...ngh...MIST."

Shego's smile grew into a smirk. "The college that didn't want you?"

Drakken growled, but pushed his ire aside. "Yes. There is an experimental computer chip they have developed that will be the final piece of the puzzle."

The hover-car sped off into the sky, and Shego let her smirk relax back into a smile. Drakken must have sensed her looking at him, because his eyes left the sky ahead to give her a sideways glance. She didn't acknowledge him, except for the slightest of shrugs as she continued to smile. Drakken returned the look shyly...and without the caution he'd regarded her with for months. And in that moment she knew...they would be okay.

She lifted her hand and started to reach for his...and then stopped. She set her hand back down in her lap. One step at a time...

They were okay.

* * *

Shego's heart pounded. _It was him._ He was alive! The aliens hadn't killed him as she'd feared.

She flew toward him on her stolen jet-pack, arms outstretched. His eyes were wide with relief, and he cried her name in joy as she landed before him. He reached forward as he ran the final few steps to meet her... And then he stopped, his eyes widening in shock. He muttered something before he recoiled rapidly that she barely registered as her arms reached out a little farther... But he turned away from her and schooled his face back into villainous chagrin.

Shego wasn't able to recover as quickly and mumbled her reply as she anxiously raked her fingers through her hair. Logically, she knew why he had pulled away. He had been true over the months of rediscovering their relationship as partners in evil, and had kept his distance. He never touched her.

The only problem with that was... Now she wanted him to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: In Greek mythology, 'Pistis' was the personification of trust.
> 
> THANK YOU to everyone who has read this! It's taken me nearly a year to write. Also a huge thanks to GoForDrakgo and Gothicthundra who have read everything except this last chapter and helped me get over some humps in the writing process.
> 
> This story was born out of a few things... First, possibly my favorite episode "Mad Dogs and Aliens," and the way Drakken and Shego interacted during the episode. It always interested me to see them so clearly at odds with one another, and I wondered why.
> 
> The second thing was the next time we see them... In "Clothes Minded," they are back to normal to the point of laughing together. And Shego throwing her arm in front of Drakken to protect him as always stood out to me. So how did they go from the animosity of "Mad Dogs and Aliens" to the camaraderie in "Clothes Minded"? This is my answer...  
> And...given the frequent clinging Drakken does to Shego, this is also my explanation for the hug that never was in Graduation.
> 
> Thank you again for reading, and please leave a review!


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